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presented  to  the 
UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 

by 

Mr.  Russell  Kimball 


Life  of 

General  Philip  Schuyler 

1733-1804 


By 
BAYARD   TUCKERMAN 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,       MEAD       AND       COMPANY 

1903 


Copyright,    1903,   by 
Dodd,  Mead  and  Company 


First  edition  published 
September,  1903 


HILL      AND      LEONARD 
HEW  YORK    CITY,  U.  S.  A. 


of  %  |ogsl  |ejji0tt  of 


fafe. 


HRADQUARTKKS    COMMANOKRT    OF    THE    STATB    OF    XRW     YOHK. 


Neiu  York,  December  31,  1906. 


CIRCULAR  No.  48.  ) 
SERIES  OF  1906.  y 
WHOLE  No.  902.  ) 


fln  flDemoriam. 


pbilip  Scbu^ler, 

BREVET    MAJOR,    LATE    U.    S.    ARMY. 


, 


SHefc,  movembcr  29, 1906,  at  lawyer,  Da. 


f 


epn  af  i 


HBADQDABTKHS     COMMANHKHY    OF    THE    STATIC    OF    NKW    YOHK. 

140  NASSAU  STREET. 

York,  December  31,   1906. 


At  a  stated  meeting  of  this  Commandery,  held  at  Delmonico's,  corner 
of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-fourth  Street,  the  following  was  adopted  as 
the  report  of  the  Committee  appointed  to  draft  resolutions  relative  to 
Original  Companion  Brevet  Major  PHILIP  SCHUYLER,  late  U.  S.  Army 
(Insignia  No.  1249),  who  died  at  Lawyer,  Va.,  November  29,  1906,  aged 
70  years. 

REPORT. 

The  sudden  extinguishment  of  the  life  of  Philip  Schuyler,  along  with 
other  valuable  lives  in  the  harrowing  casualty  by  collision  of  trains  on 
the  Southern  Railway,  near  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  on  the  morning  of  the 
national  Thanksgiving,  November  29,  1906,  removed  from  the  active  roster 
of  this  Commandery,  the  name  of  one  of  its  cherished  members. 

Among  historical  ancestries  in  the  United  States,  Philip  Schuyler's 
ancestry  both  on  the  paternal  and  maternal  sides,  was  one  of  the  first  distinc- 
tion. He  was  the  great-grandson  of  his  namesake  Major-General  Philip 
Schuyler,  Continental  Army,  and  later  United  States  Senator  for  New 
York ;  and  also  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  whose  memory  is  revered 
next  to  that  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  From  such  progenitors, 
it  is  natural  to  believe,  were  transmitted  not  a  few  rare  and  signal 
traits  of  character,  to  the  fine  spirit  of  our  lamented  Companion. 
None  of  us  perhaps  has  ever  known  a  more  engaging  character. 
Sympathetic  in  his  relations  to  all,  loyal  in  his  friendships,  a  happy  partic- 
ipant in  the  choicer  amenities  of  life,  he  was  incapable  of  an  unworthy 
thought  or  deed.  Words  of  personal  detraction  never  passed  his  lips.  His 
speech,  however  earnest,  like  his  temper,  was  ever  mild  and  moderate. 
None  knew  him  but  to  respect  and  admire  him.  Those  within  the  circle 
of  his  intimate  friends,  a  large  one  of  many  varying  personalities,  are  all 
at  one  in  the  appreciation  of  his  innate  refinement,  his  generous,  manly 
attributes,  and  his  delicate  consideration  for  others.  His  manners  were 
open,  courteous  and  even  courtly.  Hospitality  was  one  of  his  constant 
enjoyments.  An  ideal  host,  he  was  far  and  wide  a  coveted  guest. 

He  was  an  ardent  lover  of  nature,  and  incidentally  of  field  sports. 
True  to  the  ethics  of  a  sportsman,  he  invariably  observed  their  limitations 
and  restrictions.  It  was  upon  an  inviting  shooting  trip  to  the  South  in 
genial  company  that  he  passed  from  sleep  at  early  dawn  to  death  wrought, 
as  fondly  believed,  unconsciously. 

Philip  Schuyler,  the  only  son  of  George  Lee  and  Eliza  Hamilton  Schuy- 
ler, was  born  in  the  City  of  New  York,  June  20,  1836.  His  more  advanc- 
ed education  tended  toward  a  scientific  career.  He  entered  the  Lawrence 
Scientific  School  of  Harvard  University  in  the  year  1852  and  there  remain- 
ed until  1854,  especially  under  the  tuition  and  influence  of  Louis  Agassiz. 
He  spent  the  winter  of  1856-7  in  attendance  upon  lectures  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin,  particularly  those  of  Magnus  and  Dove.  On  his  return  to 
New  York  he  became  interested  in  the  study  of  law,  which  he  pursued  in 
the  office  of  the  late  Benjamin  D.  Silliman. 


Philip  Schuyler  had  his  first  training  in  the  "  school  of  the  soldier  " 
in  the  line  of  the  Seventh  Regiment  National  Guard,  State  of  New  York, 
which  he  joined  in  the  year  1859.  He  first  saw  service  as  a  private  in  this 
regiment,  April,  1861,  when,  in  response  to  the  call  of  President  Lincoln 
for  State  troops  for  defense  of  the  Capital,  it  promptly  rallied  at  Washing- 
ton April  25—1,156  strong.  When  mustered  out  of  the  Volunteer  service 
May  30,  1861,  the  strength  of  the  regiment  had  increased  to  1,250. 

Philip  Schuyler  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  great  number  of  young 
commissioned  officers  of  the  Civil  War  who  graduated  from  the  Seventh 
Regiment  as  from  a  military  school  of  the  first  order.  His  commission  as 
First  Lieutenant  in  the  Regular  Army  reached  him  in  the  defences  of 
Washington.  He  had  then  been  advanced  to  the  grade  of  Corporal.  His 
subsequent  Military  Record  as  taken  from  Henry's  Civilian  Appointments, 
U.  S.  Army,  is  substantially  as  follows  : 

MILITARY  HISTORY. — First  Lieutenant,  14th  U.  S.  Infantry,  May  14, 
1861.  On  regimental  recruiting  service,  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  and  Utica, 
N.  Y.,  to  November,  1861.  Regimental  Adjutant,  November,  1861.  At 
Fort  Trumbull,  Conn.,  Perry ville,  Md.,  Alexandria,  Va.,  and  Fort  Trum- 
bull,  Conn.,  to  July,  1863.  Captain,  14th  U.  S.  Infantry,  July  11,  1863. 
With  regiment,  to  December,  1863.  Engaged  at  the  battle  of  Rappahan- 
nock  Station,  and  operations  at  Mine  Run,  Va.  Acting  Assistant  Adju- 
tant-General to  Brigadier-Genera!  Marsena  R.  Patrick,  Provost- Marshal- 
General,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  Headquarters,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  to 
November,  1864.  Acting  Provost-Mashal-General,  "  Armies  operating 
against  Richmond  "  to  March,  1865.  Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General 
to  Brevet  Brigadier-General  George  N.  Macy,  Provost-Marshal-General, 
Army  of  the  hotomac,  to  May,  1865.  Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General 
to  the  Provost-Marshal-General,  Department  of  Virginia,  Richmond,  to 
June,  1865.  Engaged  in  Grant's  campaign  ot  1864  and  1865,  before  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg,  Va.  Brevet  Major,  U.  S.  Army,  April  9,  1865, 
"  for  gallant  and  meritorious  services  during  the  recent  operations  resulting 
in  the  fall  of  Richmond.  Va.,  and  the  surrender  of  the  Insurgent  Army 
under  General  R.  E.  Lee." 

During  such  operations  he  served  in  the  Provost-Marshal-General's 
division  of  the  General  Staff  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  General  Meade 
commanding.  These  involved  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  May,  1864  ; 
Spottsylvania,  May,  1864  ;  and  the  actions  of  North  Anna  River,  May,  1864 ; 
Cold  Harbor,  June,  1864;  Petersburg,  June,  16-17,  1864  ;  Weldon  Railway, 
May,  1864;  Boydton  Plank-Road,  October,  1864;  Hatcher's  Run,  March, 
1865  ;  Five  Forks,  March,  1865 ;  Petersburg,  April  2,  1865,  and  Amelia 
Court  House,  April,  1865. 

Major  Schuyler's  resignation  of  April,  1865,   took  effect  June  30,    1865. 

He  was  called  to  many  positions  of  honor  and  trust,  all  of  which  he 
occupied  with  marked  efficiency  and  fidelity.  Most  of  these  were  within 
the  sphere  of  altruistic  work,  and  of  the  higher  duties  of  the  citizen.  To 
such  work  and  responsibilities  he  devoted  his  characteristic  energy  and 
ability  without  emolument.  Amenable  to  the  charms  of  social  life,  he 
entered  into  many  a  sodality  of  congenial  spirits.  His  memory  is  cherished 
by  numerous  social  clubs  and  associations  in  the  City  of  New  York  and 
elsewhere.  An  interest  in  the  art  of  yacht  construction  and  sailing  was 
handed  down  to  him  by  his  father,  George  L.  Schuyler. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  Philip  Schuyler  was  president  of  the  New 
York  Hospital,  Union  Club  and  Ardsley  Club.  He  was  a  trustee  of  the  New 
York  Public  Library,  Director  of  the  Zoological  Society,  member  of  the  New 
York  and  Seawanhaka  Yacht  Clubs,  Century  Association,  Harvard  Club, 
Knickerbocker  Club,  St.  Nicholas  Society,  the  Order  of  the  Cincinnati  and 
Sons  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  also  a  member  and  patron  of  several 
metropolitan  scientific  and  other  societies. 

In  1872  Philip  Schuyler  married  the  widow  of  Eugene  Langdon  nee 
Lowndes.  He  inherited  the  Nevis  estate,  at  Irvington-on-Hudson,  of  his 


maternal  grandfather,  James  A.  Hamilton,  who  in  1835  built  the  mansion, 
naming  the  place  after  the  Island  of  Nevis  where  his  father,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  was  born.  Here  in  this  beautiful  and  much-loved  home  Philip 
Schuyler  passed  the  last  decades  of  his  life.  He  left  no  descendants.  His 
widow,  and  two  sisters,  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler  and  Georgina  Schuyler,  sur- 
vive him. 

The  funeral  services  were  held  on  December  1,  1906,  at  the  Church  of 
Saint  Barnabas,  Irvington,  Rev.  Dr.  William  H.  Benjamin  officiating, 
assisted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Leighton  Parks.  Among  the  large  number  of 
sorrowing  friends  who  attended  the  services  were  many  representative 
men,  and  delegations  from  several  leading  organizations  and  clubs.  The 
interment  was  in  the  Cemetery  at  Sleepy  Hollow,  Tarrytown. 

Resolved,  That  this  Commandery  has  received  with  profound  sorrow 
the  announcement  of  the  sudden  death  of  Companion  Philip  Schuyler,  who 
was  an  exemplar  of  all  manly  virtues,  a  gallant  soldier,  an  ideal  citizen,  a 
Christian  gentleman. 

Resolved,  That  this  brief  tribute  to  his  memory  be  entered  upon  the 
minutes,  and  that  copies  be  sent  to  his  widow  and  members  of  his  family. 

JAMES  GRANT  WILSON,  "] 

Brevet  Brigadier-General,  U.  S.  V. 

ALEXANDER  S.  WEBB,  ,, 

Brevet  Major-General,  late  U.  S.  A.  \<~°mmittee- 

JAMES  P.   KIMBALL, 
Brevet  Major,  U.  S.  V. 

BY  ORDER  OF 

BREVET  BRIGADIER-GENERAL  THOMAS  H.  HUBBARD,  U.  S.  Volunteers, 

Commander. 

A.  NOEL   BLAKEMAN, 
Acting  Assistant  Paymaster,  late  U.  S.  Navy, 

Recorder 
OFFICIAL. 


Recorder. 


PREFACE 

THIS  memoir  is  based  on  General  Schuyler's 
papers    and    letter    books,    on    the    Gates 
papers  belonging   to   the   New   York  His- 
torical Society,  on  the  archives  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment in  Washington,  and  on  some  other  collections 
of  original  historical  material. 

BAYARD  TUCKERMAN. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Province  of  New  York  —  The  Hudson  River  Manors  — 
The  Schuyler  Family I 

CHAPTER  II. 
Youth  of  Philip  Schuyler  —  The  French  and  Indian  War...     32 

CHAPTER  III. 

A  Visit  to  England  —  Home  and  Business  Life  —  Member 
of  Provincial  Assembly  —  The  Revolution  —  Appointed 
Major-General  65 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Schuyler  in  Command  of  the  Northern  Department  —  The 
Invasion  of  Canada  —  The  Johnsons  and  Tories 93 

CHAPTER  V. 

Failure  of  the  Expedition  Against  Canada  —  New  England 
Hostility  to  Schuyler  —  The  Efforts  of  Gates  to  Supplant 
Him  129 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Burgoyne's  Invasion  —  Evacuation  of  Ticonderoga  —  Schuy- 
ler's  Military  Operations 169 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

British  Defeats  at  Bennington  and  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  — 
Bright  Prospects  of  the  American  Army  —  Schuyler 
Superseded  by  Gates  —  Saratoga  —  Last  Services  During 
the  War 209 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Schuyler's  Political  Career  After  the  Revolution  —  His  Part 
in  the  Development  of  New  York  State  —  His  Family 
Life 248 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

GENERAL  PHILIP  SCHUYLER Frontispiece 

SCHUYLER  HOUSE  AT  ALBANY 68 

MAP  OF  THE  NORTHERN  DEPARTMENT 170 


Life  of 
General  Philip  Schuyler 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Province  of  New  York: — The  Hudson  River 
Manors. — The  Schuyler  Family. 

FROM  the  days  when  Philip  Schuyler  led  his 
company  of  provincials  in  the  forest  fights  of 
the  French  and  Indian  War,  until  he  sat  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  as  the  representative 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  there  elapsed  about  forty 
years.  These  years  were  replete  with  momentous 
changes  for  his  country,  and  with  patriotic  thought 
and  action  on  the  part  of  Schuyler.  The  victory  of 
Wolfe  ended  the  long  and  bloody  struggle  between 
England  and  France  for  supremacy  in  North  America. 
Thenceforth  the  English  Colonies,  which  yet  only 
skirted  the  Atlantic  coast,  were  free  to  carry  westward 
their  course  of  empire.  And,  what  was  even  more 
important,  the  colonists,  relieved  from  the  threatening 
pressure  of  French  aggression,  were  enabled  to  sast 


off  the  paralyzing  reliance  on  the  protection  of  the 
mother  country;  they  were  inspired  to  determine  rea- 
sonably and  to  assert  courageously  their  rights  as  free 
men ;  finally  to  wring  independence  from  the  powerful 
England  of  Pitt,  and  to  establish  on  enduring  founda- 
tions a  mighty  nation.  Those  stirring  years  called 
as  much  for  high  thinking  as  for  gallant  fighting,  and 
a  patriot  in  that  time  had  many  parts  to  play. 

The  province  of  New  York,  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  a  fringe  of  settlements  on  the 
Hudson  River,  Manhattan  Island  and  Long  Island. 
The  town  of  New  York,  marked  by  nature  as  the 
principal  seaport  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  contained  the 
mass  of  the  population.  Along  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  River,  scattered  here  and  there  through  the 
vast  expanse  of  forest,  wherever  nature  offered  least 
resistance  to  man,  rose  the  farmhouses  of  Dutch  and 
English  settlers.  At  the  northern  end  of  the  great 
watery  highway  stood  Albany,  the  headquarters  of 
the  fur  trade,  the  gateway  to  Canada  and  the  western 
lakes. 

As  the  boy  is  father  to  the  man,  the  town  of  New 
York  in  its  infancy  of  fourteen  thousand  inhabitants 
presented  features  which  were  destined  to  characterize 
the  city  throughout  its  magnificent  growth.  While 
Boston  and  Philadelphia  were  English  towns,  New 
York  was  cosmopolitan  from  the  first.  The  Dutch 
predominated,  followed  by  the  English  and  French. 
While  the  English  tongue  was  steadily  making  its  way 


COLONIAL   NEW   YORK 

as  the  language  of  the  province,  forcing  the  domines 
to  adopt  it  in  their  churches,  Dutch  and  French  were 
heard  on  every  side.  The  same  variety  prevailed  in 
religion.  The  Dutch  Reformed,  the  Lutherans,  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  Episcopalians  had  their 
churches,  and  a  synagogue  was  not  wanting.  The 
different  nationalities,  still  looking  to  Europe  for  their 
standards  of  life,  kept  up  as  they  could  the  customs 
and  ambitions  of  the  fatherland.  The  Dutchman, 
grown  rich  through  the  fur  trade  or  the  brewery, 
built  his  new  house  of  brick  with  gable  end  to  the 
street  and  roofed  it  with  tiles  imported  from  Holland. 
The  English  merchant  or  landed  proprietor  adopted 
the  style  which  we  call  colonial  with  its  simple  and 
beautiful  front  extended  toward  the  street.  Within 
these  doorways  were  to  be  found  the  furniture  and 
the  customs  of  the  land  still  regarded  as  home. 

At  the  foot  of  Broadway  stood  Government  House, 
the  political  and  usually  the  social  centre.  There 
the  English  Governor  lived  in  some  state,  and  gath- 
ered about  him  was  a  little  court  composed  of  the 
provincial  aristocracy,  the  proprietary  families,  the 
wealthier  merchants,  the  lawyers,  the  clergymen  and 
the  officers  of  the  garrison.  Among  these  people 
was  no  little  social  activity,  and  when,  on  Sundays  and 
holidays,  they  gathered  to  take  the  air  on  the  Battery 
or  the  Mall,  the  lesser  sort  were  expected  not  to 
approach  too  near.  From  this  aristocratic  circle  the 
social  scale  descended  through  the  tradesmen,  the 

3 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

mechanics,  the  shifting  crowd  of  laborers  and  sailors 
to  the  negro  slaves.  As  emigrants  arrived,  there  was 
no  lack  of  opportunity  for  employment,  and  the  in- 
dustrious soon  made  their  way  forward  to  comfort. 

On  the  west  side  of  Broadway,  the  pretty  English 
and  Dutch  gardens  of  the  principal  houses  sloped  to 
the  shore  of  the  Hudson  River.  The  most  thickly 
inhabited  district  lay  on  the  east  side,  between  the 
dwellings  on  Broadway  and  the  warehouses  on  the 
East  River.  But  even  here  the  buildings  were  de- 
tached, and  the  trees  were  so  numerous  that  from 
the  deck  of  the  approaching  vessel  the  town  seemed 
built  in  a  wood.  Above  Maiden  Lane  extended 
farms  and  orchards,  watered  by  ponds  and  running 
streams. 

It  was  for  material  advancement  that  the  seas  had 
been  crossed,  and  the  pursuit  of  gain  was  the  absorb- 
ing thought  of  the  population.  Nothing,  as  we  are 
told  by  an  intelligent  contemporary,  was  more  neg- 
lected than  reading  and  education.  While  New 
England,  with  less  wealth,  had  two  colleges,  it  was 
not  until  1754  that  New  York  saw  the  founding  of 
King's  College.  In  the  absence  of  mental  cultiva- 
tion, as  reached  through  books  or  the  arts,  the  inhab- 
itants had  much  to  stimulate  their  intelligence.  The 
problems  presented  by  life  in  a  new  country  enclosed 
between  the  wilderness  and  the  sea,  the  contest  against 
nature  and  the  effort  to  establish  trade  in  the  face  of 
artificial  obstacles,  all  tended  to  develop  industry, 

4 


COLONIAL   NEW   YORK 

perseverance  and  ingenuity.  Two  great  causes  of 
division  existed,  provocative  of  much  debate  and 
tending  to  prepare  the  minds  of  men  for  the  greater 
questions  of  public  policy  soon  to  be  forced  upon  them. 
These  were  the  struggle  for  supremacy  between  aris- 
tocratic and  democratic  sentiments,  and,  akin  to  it, 
the  contest  between  episcopacy  and  the  other  Protes- 
tant bodies.  The  aristocratic  traditions  of  the  old 
world  were  adhered  to  by  a  majority  of  the  upper 
classes,  but  some  powerful  families,  like  the  Delanceys, 
and  the  mass  of  the  people  were  becoming  yearly 
more  democratic.  The  effort  to  make  the  Episcopal 
church  the  established  religion  of  the  province  aroused 
the  strenuous  opposition  of  other  religious  denomina- 
tions. The  party  lines  drawn  on  these  subjects  were 
not  wholly  decided  by  wealth.  The  proprietor  of 
land,  whose  ambition  was  to  found  a  family  of  which 
the  property  and  dignity  should  be  entailed,  might  be 
a  Presbyterian  fighting  the  pretensions  of  episcopacy. 
The  Episcopal  merchant,  maintaining  the  desirability 
of  a  state  church,  might  oppose  the  aristocratic  ten- 
dencies of  a  lord  of  the  manor.  The  relations  of 
the  province  to  England  contained  much  that  was 
irritating,  and  the  mental  attitude  of  the  people  was 
constantly  becoming  more  independent  and  self- 
reliant.  Even  in  the  cabinet  at  Versailles  it  was  fore- 
seen that  England  would  find  it  difficult  to  keep  her 
colonies  in  subjection  when  the  fall  of  New  France 
removed  the  need  of  protection. 

5 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

While  the  busy  streets,  fine  houses  and  social  amuse- 
ments of  New  York  made  it  seem  a  great  capital  to 
the  country  dweller,  and  a  very  seat  of  luxury  to  the 
trader  emerging  from  the  forest,  Albany  was  a  primi- 
tive Dutch  town,  in  which  homely  labors  and  simple 
amusements  were  varied  only  by  the  excitements 
incidental  to  its  frontier  position.  The  town  stood 
on  the  side  of  the  hill  which  formed  the  west  bank 
of  the  Hudson,  its  few  streets  lined  by  gabled  Dutch 
houses,  some  built  with  great  solidity  and  no  little 
beauty,  all  neatly  kept.  From  each  roof  extended  a 
spout,  which  in  rainy  weather  cast  a  small  cascade 
upon  the  pedestrian.  Each  house  had  the  traditional 
stoop  upon  which  the  family  sat  in  the  evening  ex- 
changing salutations  with  the  passers-by.  A  crum- 
bling fort,  useless  except  against  Indians,  represented 
the  military  power.  The  church  stood  prominent  as 
the  most  important  edifice,  its  windows  adorned  by 
the  coats  of  arms  of  the  principal  families.  Christen- 
ings, marriages  and  funerals  were  the  chief  causes  of 
social  reunion  or  excitement.  The  women  were  ab- 
sorbed in  the  ceaseless  round  of  household  duties  in 
which  they  maintained  the  hereditary  standard  of 
Dutch  neatness.  Even  in  the  wealthy  families,  there 
were  no  servants  except  the  negro  slaves,  who  were 
unequal  to  relieving  their  mistresses  of  more  than 
the  drudgery. 

An  ambitious  young  man  took  up  the  career  which 
contained  the  greatest  promise  of  reward,  the  fur 

6 


COLONIAL   ALBANY 

trade.  For  success,  he  needed  all  his  hardihood  and 
endurance.  It  was  his  perilous  task  to  paddle  a 
canoe,  laden  with  hatchets,  blankets,  gunpowder,  and 
rum,  through  the  watery  highways  and  byways  of 
the  forest;  to  seek  his  trade  among  the  distant  and 
roving  savages;  to  paddle  homeward  his  load  of 
peltries,  never  secure  until  the  canoe  floated  again 
upon  the  safe  waters  of  the  Hudson.  When  he  did 
not  return,  his  friends  could  only  conjecture,  whether 
the  tomahawk  of  a  covetous  savage,  or  the  whirling 
rapids,  or  the  privations  of  the  forest,  had  caused 
his  end.  Success  meant  the  building  of  a  sloop,  the 
extension  of  trade  to  New  York,  even  to  the  West 
Indies,  the  investment  of  gains  in  tracts  of  wild  land, 
which  had  to  be  cleared,  settled  and  made  a  source 
of  income  to  the  now  wealthy  father  of  a  family.  On 
the  part  of  both  women  and  men,  the  circumstances 
of  life  called  for  the  cultivation  of  the  qualities  of 
industry  and  courage,  while  the  intellectual  and  social 
side  was  of  necessity  neglected.  This  was  true,  only 
in  a  less  degree,  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  town,  the 
Van  Rensselaers,  the  Schuylers,  the  Ten  Broecks,  the 
Cuylers  and  other  allied  families.  It  was  a  virtuous 
and  orderly  community,  in  which  the  domine  had  little 
to  do  but  to  expound  the  Gospel  and  comfort  the 
sick. 

The  calm  routine  of  Albany  was  rudely  broken 
by  the  French  and  Indian  War.  As  the  headquarters 
for  northern  operations,  the  town  became  the  rendez- 

7 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

vous  of  scarlet-coated  regiments,  of  boat-builders  and 
militia.  At  times,  the  regular  inhabitants  seemed 
lost  in  the  crowd,  and  the  influx  of  rough  men  caused 
such  disorders  that  the  Mayor  told  the  English  com- 
mander that  if  he  would  take  his  men  back  to  New 
York  the  Dutch  would  defend  their  frontiers  them- 
selves. The  dances  and  plays  introduced  into  the 
staid  society  of  the  place  by  the  officers  in  garrison 
upset  all  the  preconceived  ideas  of  propriety,  and 
fears  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  flock  hastened 
the  death  of  old  domine  Frelinghuysen. 

Connecting  the  frontier  town  of  the  province  with 
its  capital  and  seaport,  flowed  the  majestic  Hudson, 
the  great,  almost  the  only  highway  for  transportation 
and  travel,  and  the  natural  feature  of  the  country  of 
the  highest  interest  to  the  inhabitants.  The  sloops 
which  tacked  up  and  down  its  beautiful  course  fulfilled 
all  the  objects  of  railway,  steamboat  and  telegraph. 
The  movement  of  lumber  and  produce  between  the 
settlements,  the  exchange  of  business  or  social  visits 
sought  the  pathway  of  the  great  river.  It  was  with 
a  sense  of  isolation  that  the  inhabitants  saw  their 
road  to  market  and  to  friends  closed  by  the  hand  of 
winter;  and  in  the  spring,  the  distant  boom  which 
announced  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  was  welcomed 
alike  by  the  trader,  the  farmer  and  the  inmates  of 
the  manor  house,  who  sought  a  view  of  the  frozen 
river  to  watch  with  pleasurable  anticipations  the 
cracking  and  motion  of  its  surface.  In  the  cabinets 

8 


THE    HUDSON    RIVER    FAMILIES 

of  Versailles  and  of  London,  where  ministers  of  state 
bent  over  the  map  of  America,  the  Hudson  River, 
how  to  use,  to  gain  or  to  defend  it,  was  the  absorbing 
consideration.  The  changes  of  time  have  altered  the 
uses  and  the  meaning  of  the  Hudson.  Its  beauties 
and  its  romance  enshrined  in  the  immortal  words  of 
Irving,  its  shores  adorned  by  fruitful  farms  and  noble 
country  seats,  the  river  flows  on  as  of  old,  a  source  of 
pride  and  pleasure  to  the  living,  and  a  bond  of  asso- 
ciation with  the  generations  of  the  past  who  loved  to 
live  along  its  wooded  slopes. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  were 
four  families  in  the  province  of  New  York  whose 
intimate  connection  with  each  other  and  whose  com- 
mon interests  on  the  Hudson  River  make  them  a  part 
of  the  time  and  events  which  we  are  considering. 
These  were  the  Van  Rensselaers,  the  Schuylers,  the 
Van  Cortlandts  and  the  Livingstons.  The  first  three 
were  Dutch;  the  ancestor  of  the  fourth  was  Scotch, 
but  his  descendants  had  more  Dutch  than  Scotch 
blood.  All  were  proprietary  families,  so  connected 
by  marriage,  intimacy  and  business  interests  that  their 
influence  was  usually  exerted  in  harmony  and  was 
considerable  in  a  community  still  dominated  by  aris- 
tocratic ideas. 

Of  these  families,  the  first  to  be  established  in 
New  York  and  the  only  one  which  had  the  advantage 
of  any  wealth  in  the  beginning,  was  that  of  Van 
Rensselaer.  In  1629,  the  Dutch  West  India  Com- 

9 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

pany,  which  had  planted  the  colony  called  New 
Netherland,  realized  its  inability  as  a  purely  trading 
company  to  settle  its  territory  with  agricultural 
colonists  whose  presence  would  give  value  to  the  land. 
As  the  population  of  Holland  was  not  so  exuberant  as 
to  cause  a  natural  overflow,  it  was  necessary  to  offer 
special  inducements  to  emigrants.  The  company 
hoped  to  shift  upon  individuals  the  expenses  and  risks 
involved,  and  in  pursuance  of  that  policy,  invented 
the  system  of  patroonships,  founded  on  a  national 
prejudice.  The  wealthy  Dutch  burgher  nourished 
the  ambition  to  rise  in  the  social  scale  by  becoming 
a  proprietor  of  land  and  attaining  the  dignity  thereto 
associated.  In  thickly  settled  Holland,  the  possibili- 
ties in  this  direction  were  exceedingly  limited.  To 
this  ambition  the  West  India  Company  offered  a 
feudal  lordship  in  New  Netherland  on  condition  of 
planting  and  maintaining  there  a  colony  of  actual 
settlers.  The  offer  was  accepted  in  several  cases,  but 
in  all,  except  in  that  of  Kiliaen  Van  Rensselaer,  the 
attempt  was  unsuccessful;  the  system  was  soon  dis- 
avowed by  the  company,  who  bought  up  or  abolished 
the  rights  already  granted  to  patroons.  They  en- 
deavoured also  to  obtain  possession  of  Rennselaer- 
wyck,  but  were  balked  by  the  persistency  of  that 
family,  who  made  the  sole  permanent  establishment 
of  a  patroonship. 

Rennselaerwyck  was  a  tract  of  land  beginning  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mohawk  River,  extending  south- 

10 


THE    HUDSON    RIVER    FAMILIES 

ward  twenty-four  miles  along  the  banks  of  the  Hud- 
son, and  on  either  side  of  that  river  twenty- four  miles 
east  and  west.  It  contained  about  seven  hundred 
thousand  acres;  the  present  cities  of  Albany  and  Troy 
are  within  its  limits.  The  family  afterwards  became 
possessed  of  Claverack,  sometimes  called  the  Lower 
Manor,  containing  sixty-two  thousand  acres,  the  land- 
ing place  of  which  is  now  the  town  of  Hudson.  The 
territory  of  Rensselaerwyck  was  diminished  from  time 
to  time  from  various  causes,  but  it  remained  the 
largest  estate  in  the  province. 

Kiliaen  Van  Rensselaer  was  a  director  in  the  West 
India  Company  and  a  merchant  of  Amsterdam  whose 
family  had  formerly  possessed  a  manorial  estate  in 
Gelderland,  adjoining  that  of  John  of  Barneveld's 
family.  He  died  in  1 646  and  never  visited  America. 
Nor  did  his  son  Johannes,  the  second  patroon,  who 
died  young,  leaving  a  son  Kiliaen,  the  third  patroon, 
who  came  to  Albany  and  received  from  the  English 
government  the  patent  which  changed  the  patroonship 
in  New  Netherland  into  a  manor  in  the  province  of 
New  York.  Two  years  later,  in  1687,  he  died  with- 
out children. 

During  the  life  of  the  first  patroon,  the  colony 
was  managed  by  his  cousin,  Arent  Van  Corlear,  whose 
dealings  with  the  Indians  were  so  tactful  and  just 
that  for  more  than  a  century  afterwards  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Albany  were  personified  in  their  language 
by  the  word  "Corlear."  He  was  succeeded  by  Van 

ii 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Schlectenhorst,  a  man  who  needed  all  his  rude  courage 
to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  patroon  against  the 
assaults  of  Peter  Stuyvesant,  who,  as  director  general 
of  New  Netherland,  was  hostile  to  the  semi-independ- 
ence of  Rensselaerwyck.  The  feudal  sovereignty 
claimed  by  the  patroon  and  the  consequent  quarrels 
with  the  government  at  New  Amsterdam  are  illus- 
trated rather  amusingly  by  the  following  incident. 
Govert  Lookermans,  a  well  known  citizen  of  New 
Amsterdam,  brother-in-law  of  Oloff  Stevense  Van 
Cortlandt,  had  been  up  to  the  Mohawk  River  trading 
with  the  Indians.  On  his  return  he  sat  smoking  at 
the  helm  of  his  little  sloop  as  she  drifted  slowly  by 
the  fort  at  Rensselaerwyck.  One  Nicholas  Koorn, 
lately  appointed  "watchmeeister,"  bawled  at  him  from 
the  palisades,  "Strike  your  flag!"  "For  whom  shall 
I  strike?"  inquired  Lookermans.  "For  the  staple 
right  of  Rensselaerstein  1  "  "  I  strike  for  no  man," 
replied  Lookermans  contemptuously,  "but  the  Prince 
of  Orange  and  those  by  whom  I  am  employed."  Be- 
fore he  could  pass  out  of  range  a  cannon  boomed  and 
a  shot  struck  the  "princely  flag"  just  above  his  head. 
The  wrath  of  Lookermans  lost  no  strength  during  the 
days  which  elapsed  before  his  peltry  laden  sloop  came 
to  anchor  in  the  East  River,  and  at  the  report  which 
he  carried  to  the  governor,  old  Stuyvesant  stamped 
his  wooden  leg  with  rage. 

Three  of  the  younger  sons  of  the  first  patroon  acted 
in  turn  as  agents.     One  of  these,  Jeremias,  lived  at 

12 


THE    HUDSON    RIVER    FAMILIES 

Rensselaerwyck  for  seventeen  years  and  died  there. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  Oloff  Stevense  Van  Cort- 
landt,  and  one  of  his  daughters  married  Peter  Schuy- 
ler.  Until  1695,  Rensselaerwyck  remained  part  of 
the  first  patroon's  undivided  estate.  In  that  year  the 
representative  of  the  older  branch  of  the  family  in 
Holland,  named  Kiliaen,  came  out  to  Albany,  met 
the  representative  of  the  younger  branch,  also  named 
Kiliaen,  and  together  they  agreed  that  the  older 
branch  should  take  all  the  property  in  Holland  and 
the  younger  all  that  in  America.  Thus  Rennselaer- 
wyck  came  into  the  possession  of  the  children  of 
Jeremias,  younger  son  of  the  first  patroon.  These 
were  Kiliaen,  Hendrick  and  two  daughters.  Kiliaen, 
as  eldest  son,  took  Rensselaerwyck  proper,  becoming 
fourth  patroon  and  second  lord  of  the  manor.  Hen- 
drick took  the  estate  of  Claverack,  and  the  daughters 
each  received  a  farm. 

When  Kiliaen  Van  Rensselaer  came  out  from  Hol- 
land to  make  a  settlement  with  his  cousin  Kiliaen  in 
America,  he  was  no  doubt  well  pleased  with  the  result. 
When  he  contrasted  his  life  in  the  advanced  civiliza- 
tion of  Amsterdam  with  the  problems  of  existence 
amidst  the  forests  of  the  new  world,  he  must  have 
been  glad  to  leave  their  solution  to  his  relations.  The 
American  Van  Rensselaers,  although  possessing  privi- 
leges and  a  vast  domain,  were  far  from  being  placed 
beyond  the  common  cares  and  efforts  of  their  fellow 
colonists.  The  land  was  unproductive  without  the 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

labor  of  man.  Slowly  tenants  were  induced  to  settle 
at  a  nominal  rent,  who  would  fell  the  trees,  plant 
wheat  among  the  stumps  and  raise  human  dwellings 
through  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  savage.  Grad- 
ually the  elk  and  the  deer  became  less  frequent ;  year 
by  year,  the  sound  of  the  axe  was  heard  deeper  in 
the  forest;  one  wild  stream  after  another  was  set  to 
work  and  its  pleasant  voice  lost  in  the  rasping  of  the 
saw.  The  colony  founded  by  the  enterprising  mer- 
chant of  Amsterdam  yielded  no  profit  to  him.  The 
descendants  of  his  younger  son  reaped  the  advantage 
of  the  efforts  and  growth  of  a  long  series  of  years.  By 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  Rensselaerwyck 
and  Claverack  contained  many  fine  farms  and  a  nu- 
merous tenantry.  The  proprietors  lived  quiet  and 
uneventful  lives,  possessing  much  influence,  but  taking 
little  part  in  public  affairs.  The  Dutch  title  of  patroon 
clung  to  the  head  of  the  family  until  1839,  a  curious 
survival  of  an  outgrown  past.  Philip  Schuyler  mar- 
ried a  Van  Rensselaer  of  Claverack,  his  daughter  mar- 
ried the  last  patroon,  and  his  son  the  patroon's  sister. 
When  the  ship  "Haring"  cast  anchor  off  the  fort  at 
New  Amsterdam  in  1637,  with  supplies  and  a  gar- 
rison for  the  little  trading  settlement,  there  landed 
among  the  common  soldiers  one  called  Oloff  Stevense, 
afterwards  known  as  Van  Cortlandt.  Young,  poor, 
ambitious,  he  had  sailed  away  from  Holland  to  carve 
out  for  himself  in  a  distant  wilderness  a  career  and 
a  fortune  of  which  he  saw  small  prospect  at  home. 

14 


THE    HUDSON    RIVER    FAMILIES 

He  soon  left  his  messmates  in  the  fort  and  entered 
the  civil  service  of  the  company,  where  his  education 
and  industry  caused  his  promotion  to  be  keeper  of  the 
stores.  The  ready  money  saved  in  this  employment 
enabled  him  to  begin  business  for  himself.  Trade  in 
furs  increased  his  resources ;  he  established  a  brewery 
in  Whitehall  Street  and  soon  became  a  leading  man, 
respected  as  much  for  his  character  as  for  his  wealth. 
He  was  successively  captain  of  the  train  band,  one 
of  the  Nine  Men,  the  first  representative  body  in  the 
colony,  a  signer  of  the  Remonstrance  to  the  States 
General  against  the  tyranny  of  Stuyvesant,  burgo- 
master, a  delegate  to  Hartford  in  1663  to  settle  the 
New  England  boundaries,  and  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners chosen  to  negotiate  with  Governor  Nichols 
the  surrender  of  the  province  to  England  in  1664. 
Before  his  death,  in  1684,  he  had  reached  the  goal 
of  his  ambition,  as  regarded  both  his  own  position 
and  that  of  his  children.  His  daughter  married 
Frederick  Philipse,  the  proprietor  of  the  manor  at 
Philipsburg,  now  Yonkers.  His  second  son,  Jacobus, 
married  Eve  Philipse,  the  heiress  of  extensive  lands  in 
Westchester  County,  and  their  daughter  was  the 
mother  of  John  Jay. 

The  eldest  son,  Stephanus,  the  founder  of  the 
manor  of  Cortlandt,  married  Gertruyd,  the  daughter 
of  Philip  Pieterse  Schuyler.  Like  his  father,  Ste- 
phanus was  a  man  of  energy,  force  and  breadth  of 

15 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

character,  ready  to  serve  his  country  as  well  as  him- 
self. He  accumulated  a  considerable  property  of  his 
own  independently  of  that  left  him  by  his  father.  In 
1677,  when  thirty- four  years  old,  he  was  appointed 
Mayor  of  New  York  and  was  the  first  native  born 
citizen  to  hold  that  office.  In  1680,  he  became  a 
member  of  the  King's  Council  and  retained  his  seat 
until  his  death,  except  during  the  two  years  of  Leisler's 
usurpation,  during  which  exciting  period  he  was 
obliged  to  seek  refuge  in  turn  at  Albany,  in  New 
England  and  New  Jersey.  The  absence  of  legal  edu- 
cation in  the  province  caused  the  appointment  of 
intelligent  laymen  to  judicial  positions,  and  Van 
Cortlandt  sat  on  the  bench  as  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  as  the  first  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  of  King's  County.  He  was  always  a  valued 
adviser  of  the  English  governors,  and  for  many  years 
was  entrusted  by  them  with  the  collection  of  the 
provincial  revenues. 

As  soon  as  his  means  allowed,  Stephanus  Van  Cort- 
landt gratified  his  ambition  to  become  the  proprietor 
of  a  manor.  He  purchased  from  the  Indians  a  tract 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Hudson,  beginning  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Croton  River,  extending  northward  to 
Anthony's  Nose  and  to  the  eastward  twenty  miles  into 
the  woods,  for  which  he  received  a  patent  from 
William  III.  The  old  manor  house  still  stands,  pro- 
tected by  a  hill  from  the  north  winds  and  looking 
southward  for  manv  miles  over  the  Tappan  See.  It 

16 


THE    HUDSON    RIVER    FAMILIES 

has  always  been  inhabited  by  descendants  of  the 
founder  of  the  manor,  and  its  hospitality  was  ever 
the  dependence  of  travellers  journeying  up  and  down 
the  river.  From  its  veranda  George  Whitefield 
preached.  During  the  Revolution,  Franklin,  Wash- 
ington, Rochambeau,  Lafayette  and  Luzerne  were  its 
guests.  It  is  probably  the  best  example  of  a  colonial 
house  built  for  defence  as  well  as  for  residence.  Its 
thick  stone  walls  pierced  by  loop  holes  for  musketry, 
the  Indian  arrow  heads  which  are  picked  up  in  its 
beautiful  garden,  make  it  an  interesting  relic  of  the 
past. 

Stephanus  Van  Cortlandt  had  numerous  children 
who  married  into  the  Van  Rensselaer,  Schuyler,  de 
Peyster,  de  Lancey,  Bayard  and  Beeckman  families. 
His  youngest  daughter,  Cornelia,  was  the  mother  of 
General  Philip  Schuyler.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, the  proprietor  of  the  manor  was  Pierre  Van 
Cortlandt,  who,  with  his  son  Pierre,  rejected  the 
overtures  of  Governor  Tryon  and  supported  with 
energy  the  patriot  cause.  The  father  was  a  member 
of  the  first  provincial  Congress  and  president  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety.  The  son  became  a 
lieutenant  colonel  in  the  continental  service. 

The  Van  Rensselaer,  Schuyler  and  Van  Cortlandt 
families  had  been  established  for  many  years  in  the 
province  when  Robert  Livingston  arrived  in  1674,  at 
the  same  time  that  Governor  Andros  came  to  manage 
the  colony  for  the  Duke  of  York.  Of  worldly  goods 

17 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

he  brought  little  or  nothing,  but  a  great  store  of 
ambition  and  industry.  His  great-grandfather,  his 
grandfather  and  his  father  were  ministers  of  the 
church  of  Scotland.  His  father,  banished  for  non- 
conformity, passed  the  last  years  of  his  life  at  Rotter- 
dam, where  Robert  obtained  the  familiarity  with  the 
Dutch  language  and  people  which  was  so  useful  to 
him  in  America.  Although  he  was  imbued  with  the 
religion  of  his  ancestors,  its  profession  did  not  appeal 
to  his  adventurous  and  acquisitive  character.  It  was 
at  the  age  of  twenty  that  he  ascended  the  Hudson 
River  to  the  frontier  town  of  Albany,  and  obtained 
the  position  of  secretary  to  the  commissioners  to 
whom  was  entrusted  the  local  government.  With  a 
thrift  both  Scotch  and  Dutch,  he  saved  enough  from 
his  salary  and  fees  to  begin  trading.  In  nine  years 
he  was  sufficiently  well  off  to  make  his  first  purchase 
of  land  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Hudson;  and  in  1683 
he  married  Alyda,  daughter  of  Philip  Pieterse 
Schuyler,  and  widow  of  Rev.  Nicholas  Van  Rensse- 
laer.  In  1686,  he  received  the  patent  erecting  his 
lands  into  the  manor  of  Livingston.  In  1692,  he 
built  a  small  house  above  Livingston  Creek,  but  he 
did  not  begin  to  live  there  until  1711,  his  official 
duties  requiring  his  presence  at  Albany.  He  died  in 
1728.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  several  de- 
scendants of  his  were  men  of  exceptional  distinction 
and  influence:  William  Livingston,  of  New  Jersey; 
Philip,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 

18 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

Robert  R.,  the  chancellor  of  New  York;  and  Edward, 
the  author  of  the  Louisiana  Code. 

During  the  earlier  years  of  the  province  of  New 
York,  before  the  issues  involved  in  the  Revolution 
were  raised,  the  most  important  public  interest  of  the 
inhabitants — the  danger  which  touched  them  most 
nearly — was  the  attitude  toward  them  of  the  Indian 
Confederacy  called  the  Six  Nations.  Intelligent, 
ferocious,  and  jealous  of  encroachment,  these  savages 
lived  at  the  very  doors  of  the  province;  they  barred 
the  road  to  the  West,  and  were  capable  of  overwhelm- 
ing the  settlements  about  Albany  and  on  the  Hudson 
River.  Moreover,  the  almost  continuous  hostility 
between  the  French  in  Canada  and  the  English 
colonists  gave  to  this  Confederacy  a  balance  of  power 
of  which  they  recognized  the  full  value.  They  were 
able  to  make  the  northern  portions  of  the  province 
uninhabitable  for  white  men;  and  had  they  given  to 
the  French  their  active  alliance,  and  had  they  joined 
the  scalping  knife  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  cannon  of 
the  trained  soldier  in  a  united  attack,  the  plans  of 
Frontenac  might  have  been  carried  out.  The  French 
Governor  writing  to  Versailles,  the  English  to  Lon- 
don, bore  the  same  testimony  to  the  efficacy  of  the 
barrier  between  the  rival  nations  which  was  formed 
by  the  Indian  Confederacy.  That  this  bulwark 
against  French  invasion  was  maintained,  that  good 
relations  with  the  savages  were  kept  up,  that  the  fur 
trader  could  reach  the  western  lakes,  and  that  the 

19 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Dutchman  could  sleep  securely  in  Albany,  were 
benefits  due  chiefly,  before  1745,  to  members  of  the 
Schuyler  family.  In  the  wars  and  the  diplomacy  of 
the  frontier,  that  name  was  most  frequently  heard, 
and  men  who  bore  it  were  most  conspicuous  in  the 
public  service. 

In  1650,  Philip  Pieterse,  the  founder  of  the  family, 
emigrated  from  Amsterdam  to  Rensselaerwyck,  and 
soon  after  married  the  daughter  of  Van  Schlechten- 
horst,  the  patroon's  agent.  In  1652,  occurred  one 
of  the  periodical  conflicts  between  the  West  India 
Company's  soldiers  at  Fort  Orange  and  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  patroon.  A  son  of  Van  Schlechten- 
horst  was  dragged  through  the  street  by  soldiers, 
while  the  company's  commissary  stood  by,  crying, 
"Let  him  have  it  now  and  the  devil  take  him !"  At 
this  juncture  young  Schuyler  appeared,  threw  himself 
lustily  into  the  fight  and  rescued  his  brother-in-law 
in  spite  of  the  odds.  His  hardihood,  enterprise  and 
faith  in  the  future  of  his  adopted  country  made  him 
a  leading  and  prosperous  man.  His  pursuit  of  the 
fur  trade  was  carried  on  not  only  with  profit,  but  with 
a  justice  and  intelligence  which  established  relations 
of  peculiar  confidence  between  his  family  and  the 
savage  tribes.  His  house  at  The  Flatts,  a  few  miles 
north  of  Albany,  lay  directly  in  the  path  of  the  Indians 
on  their  way  to  the  town  by  land  or  river.  At  the 
house  they  found  a  willing  hospitality,  and  on  the 
floor  of  the  barn  their  dusky  forms  were  stretched 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

almost  nightly.  Thus  Schuyler  and  his  sons  acquired 
a  familiarity  with  their  character  and  a  facility  in 
dealing  with  them  which  proved  of  great  value  to 
the  province.  A  personal  feeling  of  friendship  arose 
on  the  part  of  the  Indians  to  which  was  due  the  fact 
that  through  all  the  disorders  of  the  border  no  person 
at  The  Flatts,  unprotected  as  it  was,  received  harm 
from  the  savages. 

The  success  of  Philip  Pieterse's  business  operations 
can  be  judged  by  his  investments.  The  great  posses- 
sions of  the  Van  Rensselaers  made  it  necessary  for 
a  purchaser  of  land  to  go  to  a  considerable  distance. 
But  Philip  Pieterse  secured  two  fine  tracts  within  the 
manor;  The  Flatts  which  he  bought  of  Richard  Van 
Rensselaer  when  he  returned  to  Holland,  and  the 
large  farm  on  the  east  side  of  the  Hudson  which 
Joanna  de  Laet  had  received  from  Jeremiah  Van 
Rensselaer  in  liquidation  of  her  claims  to  a  share  of 
Rensselaerwyck.  In  Albany  he  owned  a  number  of 
lots  besides  his  house  on  North  Pearl  Street.  He  had 
a  tract  on  the  Mohawk  River  and  another  at  Esopus, 
now  Kingston.  He  even  extended  his  investments 
to  New  York.  There  he  owned  two  houses  on  the 
corner  of  Exchange  Place  and  Broadway,  "one  being 
a  great  new  house,  the  other  a  small  old  one",  and 
the  lot  on  the  corner  of  Rector  Street  and  Broadway. 
These  properties  he  gave  to  his  son  Brandt  and  his 
daughter  Gertruyd  when  they  married  Cornelia  and 
Stephanus  Van  Cortlandt. 

21 


Philip  Pieterse  Schuyler  died  in  1683,  and  was 
buried  from  the  old  Dutch  church  where  his  arms 
were  emblazoned  on  one  of  the  windows.  Although 
one  of  his  daughters  married  the  founder  of  the 
manor  of  Livingston,  another  that  of  the  manor  of 
Cortlandt,  and  his  eldest  son  the  granddaughter  of 
the  first  patroon,  neither  he  nor  his  sons  seem  to  have 
had  a  similar  aristocratic  ambition.  According  to 
Dutch  traditions,  his  property  was  divided  equally 
among  all  his  children,  with  the  full  consent  of  Peter, 
the  eldest,  who,  under  the  English  law,  might  have 
claimed  all  the  lands. 

Among  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Philip  Pieterse 
were  many  who  figure  in  the  provincial  annals  and 
especially  in  the  records  of  forest  war  and  negotiation. 
The  name  occurs  frequently  and  always  creditably 
in  the  stirring  narratives  of  Francis  Parkman.  The 
most  distinguished  was  Peter,  who,  during  the  forty 
years  from  1684  to  1724,  constantly  played  a  leading 
part.  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer, 
Mayor  of  Albany  and  chairman  of  the  Board  of 
Indian  Commissioners,  he  was  not  only  a  force  in  his 
native  town,  but  as  a  member  of  the  council  in  New 
York  and  three  times  acting  governor,  his  influence 
extended  over  the  whole  province.  The  familiarity 
with  the  language  and  character  of  the  Indians  which 
he  acquired  as  a  boy  at  The  Flatts  was  the  basis  of 
a  power  in  dealing  with  the  tribes  which  had  no  rival 
in  his  time  and  afterwards  was  equalled  only  by  the 

22 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

ability  of  Sir  William  Johnson.  In  the  provincial 
records  we  often  see  the  figure  of  this  sturdy  and 
tactful  Dutchman,  sometimes  alone,  sometimes  accom- 
panied by  his  brother-in-law,  Livingston,  and  by  Van 
Cortlandt,  seated  about  the  council  fire,  smoking  the 
calumet  and  punctuating  with  belts  of  wampum  the 
figurative  oratory  of  the  forest.  The  famous  Jesuit 
Joncaire,  naturalized  among  the  Senecas  and  devoting 
his  life  to  winning  over  the  Six  Nations  to  the  interests 
of  France,  could  not  prevail  against  Peter  Schuyler, 
ascending  the  Mohawk  in  his  birchbark  canoe,  follow- 
ing the  trail  through  the  wilderness  and  in  every 
village  "  keeping  bright  the  chain  of  friendship." 
From  the  savages  who  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  The 
Flatts,  Schuyler  obtained  information  of  the  ceaseless 
intrigues  of  the  French,  and  more  than  once  was  able 
to  warn  the  frontiers  of  New  England  of  approaching 
danger.  A  picturesque  incident  in  his  career  occurred 
in  1710,  when,  partly  to  impress  the  Six  Nations  with 
the  power  of  England  and  partly  to  excite  English 
interest  in  the  provincial  struggles,  Schuyler  took  four 
Mohawk  chiefs  to  London.  Received  as  the  guests 
of  the  nation,  fantastically  attired  by  a  theatrical  cos- 
turner,  introduced  as  Kings  to  Queen  Anne  by  the 
Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  driven  through  the  streets  in 
royal  carriages  and  made  the  subject  of  essays  by 
Steele  and  Addison,  they  formed  the  sensation  of  the 
day. 

Peter  Schuyler  could  fight  as  well  as  negotiate, 

23 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

could  lead  his  savage  allies  on  the  warpath  as  well 
as  hold  their  allegiance  by  persuasion.  The  annals 
of  the  time  reveal  him  enduring  the  hardships  of 
partisan  warfare,  crouching  at  night  in  a  hole  scooped 
out  of  the  snow,  before  a  fire  which  lit  up  the  faces  of 
companions  where  ferocity  was  always  present  and 
treachery  always  to  be  dreaded.  On  one  of  these 
occasions,  when  in  pursuit  of  a  Canadian  raiding  party 
in  the  depth  of  winter,  starvation  was  added  to  ex- 
posure and  the  danger  of  hostile  rifles.  The  hungry 
Schuyler  rose  from  his  bed  of  hemlock  boughs  and 
was  searching  in  the  snow  for  a  breakfast  of  nuts, 
when  he  was  called  to  a  camp  fire  where  his  red  allies 
sat  feasting  about  a  steaming  kettle.  The  kind  of 
men  which  he  had  both  to  command  and  to  fight  was 
shown  when  a  human  hand  ladled  out  of  the  kettle 
betrayed  to  Schuyler  that  a  Frenchman  slain  in  the 
previous  day's  encounter  had  furnished  the  savage 
meal. 

In  1691,  when  aggressive  measures  against  Fron- 
tenac  became  necessary,  Major  Schuyler  gathered 
together  a  force  of  English,  Dutch,  Mohawks  and 
Mohegans,  in  all  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  men-  He 
followed  that  warpath  so  long  familiar  to  the  colonists 
and  often  afterwards  to  be  trodden  in  the  French 
War  and  the  Revolution — up  the  Hudson,  through 
Lakes  George  and  Champlain  and  down  the  Richelieu 
River  to  the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  little 
army  built  their  canoes  and  fashioned  their  paddles 

24 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

in  the  woods,  subsisting  on  the  deer,  elk  and  bear 
which  their  hunting  parties  brought  into  camp.  Leav- 
ing his  canoes  hidden  and  guarded  on  the  banks  of 
the  Richelieu,  Schuyler  followed  the  forest  trails  to 
La  Prairie  on  the  St.  Lawrence. 

His  plans  were  known  to  the  French,  who  concerted 
measures  to  destroy  him.  While  the  French  com- 
mander, Callieres,  awaited  his  attack  at  La  Prairie 
with  the  greatly  superior  force  of  seven  hundred  men, 
another  body  of  Canadians  and  Indians  equal  to 
Schuyler's  in  number,  under  Valrenne,  allowed  him 
to  pass  by  unmolested  in  the  woods,  and  then,  posting 
themselves  on  the  return  path  to  his  canoes,  prepared 
to  cut  to  pieces  what  might  remain  of  his  retreating 
army.  Between  the  two  hostile  forces,  Schuyler  must 
win  two  victories  or  be  utterly  destroyed.  It  was 
an  hour  before  daylight  when  he  reached  La  Prairie. 
A  French  sentinel  perceived  the  shadowy  forms  of 
men  gliding  from  tree  to  tree,  shouted  "  Qui  Vive," 
fired  his  musket  and  ran  in  shouting  the  alarm. 
Callieres  was  ill  and  his  men  seem  to  have  indulged 
in  too  much  brandy  the  evening  before.  On  one  side 
of  the  fort  were  encamped  the  Canadians  and  Indians, 
on  the  other  the  French  regulars.  The  former  were 
first  attacked  and  driven  with  loss  into  the  fort.  The 
regulars  then  rushed  upon  Schuyler's  men,  who  met 
them  with  a  volley  which  killed  fifty  and  drove  the 
rest  to  cover.  Forming  again,  they  made  another 
attack,  were  again  repulsed  by  a  telling  fire  and  were 

25 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

forced  to  take  refuge  with  the  Canadians  and  Indians 
in  the  fort. 

Having  accomplished  his  object  of  inflicting  loss 
and  defeat  upon  a  force  which  he  now  perceived  to 
be  largely  superior  to  his  own,  Schuyler  retreated 
slowly,  cutting  down  the  growing  corn  as  he  went, 
and  entered  again  upon  the  forest  trail  which  led  to 
his  canoes  on  the  Richelieu.  His  men  had  marched 
all  night,  had  fought  their  fight  in  the  early  dawn, 
and  now  at  nine  o'clock,  as  they  picked  their  way 
through  the  bushes  and  trees,  the  forest  ahead  sud- 
denly resounded  with  war  whoops.  Schuyler's  scouts 
had  met  those  of  Valrenne's  ambushed  force.  Upon 
a  rocky  ridge  which  crossed  the  trail,  the  French 
officer  had  posted  his  men,  lying  three  deep  behind 
fallen  trees  and  hidden  by  bushes.  The  charge  or- 
dered by  Schuyler  met  with  such  volleys  of  musketry 
as  to  betray  the  great  strength  of  the  enemy.  Then 
Schuyler  realized  the  extent  of  his  danger,  between 
the  semi-circle  of  rifles  which  barred  his  advance  and 
the  avenging  enemy  which  was  surely  following.  "I 
encouraged  my  men,"  says  his  terse  account,  "and 
told  them  there  was  no  other  choice,  fight  or  die  they 
must,  the  enemy  being  between  us  and  our  canoes." 
The  conflict  which  ensued  was  reported  by  Frontenac 
himself  as  the  most  hotly  contested  ever  fought  on 
the  border.  Charge  after  charge  was  desperately 
made  and  furiously  repelled,  until  the  combatants 
mingled  together  and  fought  hand  to  hand.  Many 

26 


THE   SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

Indians  on  both  sides  took  to  their  heels,  and  the  battle 
was  fought  out  by  the  whites  and  the  bravest  of  their 
savage  allies.  A  French  account  says,  "Us  enfon- 
cerent  notre  ambuscade."  "We  broke  through  the 
middle  of  their  body,"  reported  Schuyler,  "until  we 
got  into  their  rear,  trampling  upon  their  dead;  then 
faced  about  them,  and  fought  them  until  we  made 
them  give  way;  then  drove  them,  by  strength  of  arm, 
four  hundred  paces  before  us;  and  to  say  the  truth 
we  were  all  glad  to  see  them  retreat."  And  it  was 
time,  for  the  forces  of  La  Prairie  were  approaching 
to  avenge  their  discomfiture  of  the  morning.  Leaving 
the  dead,  the  knapsacks  and  a  flag  behind  them, 
Schuyler's  party  reached  their  canoes  with  the 
wounded,  and  after  waiting  for  stragglers,  of  whom 
five  came  in,  they  paddled  back  to  Albany. 

To  the  Six  Nations,  Peter  Schuyler  was  known 
under  the  name  of  "Quider."  According  to  the  Indian 
habit  of  impersonating  nations  and  collective  powers, 
the  name  Corlear  was  always  used  to  indicate  the 
Dutch  or  English  Governor  in  New  York,  and  the 
authorities  at  Albany  continued  to  be  described,  long 
after  Schuyler's  death,  by  the  word  Quider.  The 
individuals  changed,  but  the  treaties  were  still  dis- 
cussed and  concluded  with  Corlear  and  Quider.  At 
the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  com- 
mittee of  the  continental  congress,  In  seeking  the 
neutrality  of  the  Six  Nations,  found  it  expedient  to 
address  them  as,  "We,  the  representatives  of  the 

27 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

Congress  and  the  descendants  of  Quider."  Thus,  at 
this  distant  and  momentous  juncture,  was  Peter 
Schuyler's  departed  spirit  still  present  at  the  council 
fire  in  the  silent  service  of  his  country. 

Johannes,  a  younger  son  of  Philip  Pieterse,  was 
only  less  active  in  public  affairs  than  his  distinguished 
brother  Peter.  Indian  Commissioner,  Mayor  of  Al- 
bany, the  envoy  of  Governor  Bellomont  to  Frontenac 
in  1798,  member  of  the  Colonial  Assembly  from  1705 
to  1713,  he  was  also  a  fighter.  When  Winthrop's 
expedition  against  Canada  was  abandoned,  Captain 
Johannes  Schuyler  resolved  that  at  least  one  blow 
should  be  struck;  and  with  a  party  of  volunteers  he 
made  a  successful  attack  upon  La  Prairie.  After  the 
fight  there,  he  sat  with  his  band  of  raiders  at  dinner 
in  the  forest,  while  the  French  alarm  cannon  boomed 
from  fort  to  fort.  "  We  thanked  the  governor  of 
Canada,"  he  wrote  in  his  journal,  "  for  his  salute  of 
heavy  artillery  during  our  meal."  Johannes  was  the 
grandfather  of  General  Schuyler  and  father  of  the 
"American  Lady"  whose  memoirs  were  written  by 
Mrs.  Grant  of  Laggan. 

His  eldest  son,  Philip,  was  living  on  the  family 
lands  at  Saratoga,  where  he  was  occupied  in  clearing 
and  settling  the  surrounding  wilderness.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1745,  the  French  officer  Marin,  leading  a  con- 
siderable force  of  Canadians  and  Indians,  made  a 
descent  upon  the  English  frontiers.  They  approached 
Saratoga  at  night,  when  the  inhabitants  were  unsus- 

28 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

picious  of  danger,  and  sleeping.  While  the  body  qf 
the  invaders  scattered  to  attack  the  different  houses, 
a  party  under  an  officer  named  Beauvais  surrounded 
Schuyler's  dwelling.  The  subsequent  occurrences  are 
related  in  a  French  manuscript  written  by  a  member 
of  the  expedition.  "We  went  to  the  house  of  a  man 
named  Philip  Skulle  (Schuyler),  a  brave  man  who 
would  have  given  us  much  trouble  if  he  had  had  with 
him  a  dozen  men  as  valiant  as  himself.  Beauvais,  who 
knew  and  liked  him,  went  up  to  the  house  first,  told 
him  his  name  and  asked  him  to  surrender  and  save 
himself.  The  other  replied  that  he  was  a  dog  and 
that  he  would  kill  him,  and  then  fired  upon  him. 
Beauvais  repeated  his  request  to  surrender,  to  which 
Philip  answered  by  firing  again.  At  last  Beauvais, 
weary  of  receiving  his  fire,  shot  and  killed  him.  We 
entered  immediately,  and  everything  was  pillaged  in 
an  instant.  This  house  was  of  brick,  pierced  with 
loop  holes  to  the  ground  floor.  Some  servants  were 
made  prisoners,  and  it  was  said  that  some  people  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  the  cellar  were  burned."  This 
Philip  was  the  uncle  of  General  Schuyler,  from  whom 
he  inherited  the  Saratoga  lands. 

Another  military  Schuyler  was  Peter,  a  nephew  of 
Quider,  whose  father  Arent  had  left  him  an  extensive 
estate  now  comprised  in  the  city  of  Newark,  New 
Jersey.  He  was  colonel  of  militia  in  1746,  and  com- 
manded the  regiment  called  the  Jersey  Blues  in  the 
French  War.  In  1756,  while  stationed  at  Oswego, 

29 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

the  outpost  on  Lake  Ontario,  he  was  captured  by 
Montcalm,  escaped  the  Indian  massacre  which  oc- 
curred there,  and  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Quebec. 
There  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  generosity  and 
kindness  to  his  fellow  captives,  among  whom  was 
Israel  Putnam,  who  had  escaped  as  by  a  miracle  from 
the  slow  fire  which  his  savage  captors  had  kindled 
around  him.  Peter  served  under  General  Amherst 
and  was  present  at  the  events  ending  in  the  conquest 
of  Canada. 

Although  some  of  the  Schuylers  established  them- 
selves elsewhere,  like  Arent  in  New  Jersey  and  Brandt 
in  New  York  City,  the  family  continued  to  be  identi- 
fied with  Albany.  There  were  six  mayors  of  the 
name  before  1750.  The  original  Dutch  house  of  old 
Quider  remained  on  the  corner  of  State  and  North 
Pearl  Streets  until  recent  years.  The  homestead 
called  The  Flatts  which  Philip  Pieterse  had  bought 
from  the  Van  Rensselaers  has  never  ceased  to  be 
inhabited  by  descendants  of  his.  The  name  was 
derived  from  the  fertile  stretch  of  level  meadow  land 
which  extends  north  of  Albany  along  the  west  bank 
of  the  Hudson.  The  original  house  was  burned 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  but  portions  of  the 
brick  walls  were  left  standing,  and  being  rebuilt  on 
the  same  lines,  the  house  still  appears  very  much 
as  it  was.  The  frame  of  the  barn  is  the  same  as  when 
the  Iroquois  made  it  their  favorite  lodging.  The 
grounds  about  the  house  were  the  rendezvous  of  the 

30 


THE    SCHUYLER    FAMILY 

military  parties  which  the  Schuylers  led  against  Can- 
ada. By  the  door  marched  the  armies  in  the  French 
War  and  the  Revolution.  There  were  entertained 
Howe,  Abercrombie  and  Amherst,  besides  number- 
less other  officers.  There  was  passed  the  interesting 
and  hospitable  life  of  Aunt  Schuyler,  so  pleasingly 
portrayed  in  the  Memoirs  of  an  American  Lady. 

A  few  rods  to  the  north  of  the  house  is  the  old 
family  burying  ground.  As  the  visitor  enters  it,  he 
finds  himself  in  a  dense  wood.  Unused  for  many 
years,  nature  has  been  allowed  to  resume  her  sway. 
Forest  trees  have  grown  to  maturity;  their  spreading 
roots  have  overthrown  headstones  and  unsettled  the 
foundations  of  monuments.  A  thick  undergrowth 
hides  the  moss-covered  slabs  beneath  which  sleep 
Quider  and  his  hardy  kinsmen.  As  the  visitor  parts 
the  branches  to  read  the  names  of  the  dead,  he  finds 
here  a  colonel  and  there  a  captain.  In  the  forest 
their  battles  were  fought,  and  now  in  a  forest  they 
lie,  close  by  the  banks  of  their  beloved  river. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Youth  of  Philip  Schuyler. — The  French  and  Indian 

War. 


F 


SCHUYLER  had  only  Dutch  blood 
in  his  veins.  Fourth  in  descent  from  Philip 
Pieterse,  he  was  grandson  of  Captain  Jo- 
hannes and  son  of  Johannes,  Jr.,  Indian  Commis- 
sioner and  Mayor  of  Albany.  Born  November  i  ith, 
1733,  he  lost  his  father  when  eight  years  of  age  and 
was  brought  up  by  his  mother,  Cornelia  Van  Cort- 
landt,  partly  at  her  house  in  Albany  and  partly  at  The 
Flatts,  where  Aunt  Schuyler's  model  household  was 
a  second  home  to  him.  The  surroundings  of  his 
boyhood  were  such  as  to  develop  the  practical  and 
hardy  qualities  necessary  for  success  at  a  time  when 
there  was  no  specialization  of  activity,  when  a  leading 
man  had  to  be  an  adept  not  only  in  one  but  in  various 
employments.  Shooting  and  fishing  were  the  natural 
amusements  of  the  boy;  to  handle  a  horse  or  a  canoe, 
to  sail  a  sloop,  to  tread  alone  without  fear  the  forest 
paths,  became  matters  of  course.  Of  moral  training 
he  had  the  best  kind  in  the  example  of  the  simple 
and  high  minded  lives  which  were  lived  about  him 
in  the  family  circle  at  The  Flatts;  and  the  religious 

32 


YOUTH  OF  PHILIP  SCHUYLER 

impressions  then  made  upon  his  youthful  character 
were  strong  enough  to  endure  as  guides  of  conduct 
throughout  a  long  life. 

Of  the  education  to  be  derived  from  books,  young 
Schuyler  received  a  share  unusual  at  that  time,  and 
equalled  only  by  the  advantages  of  the  few  graduates 
of  Yale  College  in  the  province.  A  Huguenot  tutor 
taught  him  until  he  was  fifteen  years  old,  when  he 
was  sent  to  New  Rochelle,  the  home  of  the  Huguenot 
refugees,  and  placed  in  charge  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Stouppe,  the  pastor  of  the  French  Protestant  church. 
There  he  remained  for  three  years  in  close  application 
to  study  and  learned  to  speak  French,  then  an  unusual 
accomplishment  for  a  provincial.  At  New  Rochelle, 
as  previously  at  Albany,  mathematics  was  young 
Schuyler's  favorite  subject,  and  the  circumstance  ac- 
cords with  the  methodical,  orderly  and  accurate  habit 
of  mind  which  afterwards  characterized  him.  Among 
his  papers  are  a  large  number  of  mathematical  cal- 
culations, generally  made  for  a  practical  end,  to  deter- 
mine the  height  of  canal  locks  or  the  sinking  fund 
of  the  public  debt,  but  often  puzzling  problems 
worked  out  for  amusement  only.  This  intellectual 
bent,  pursued  as  it  was  with  pleasure,  lies  close  to 
the  foundation  of  Schuyler's  usefulness.  The  prob- 
lems which  life  was  to  present  to  him,  in  his  private 
business,  in  his  labors  as  soldier  and  statesman,  were 
often  novel,  to  be  solved  by  independent  thought,  un- 
aided by  previous  education  or  experience. 

33 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

John  Jay  as  a  boy  was  also  one  of  Mr.  Stouppe's 
scholars,  and  lived  at  his  house  some  years  after 
Schuyler.  From  him  we  learn  that  the  diet  provided 
by  Mrs.  Stouppe  was  meagre  even  for  those  simple 
days;  and  the  future  Chief  Justice  had  sometimes  to 
go  hungry  to  bed  in  a  room  so  ill  protected  from  the 
winds  of  winter  that  he  awoke  to  find  the  snow  drifted 
upon  the  floor.  Schuyler's  experience  was  doubtless 
the  same.  It  was  while  studying  at  New  Rochelle 
that  there  first  developed  what  was  destined  to  be  the 
chief  drawback  and  impediment  in  his  life,  the 
liability  to  attacks  of  rheumatic  gout.  This  painful 
disease  confined  him  to  the  house  for  a  whole  year 
while  he  was  yet  a  growing  youth;  he  never  ceased 
to  be  subject  to  the  infliction;  and  at  important  junc- 
tures, when  he  needed  all  his  strength  of  body  and 
mind,  he  had  the  mortification  and  sorrow  of  being 
totally  incapacitated. 

After  his  studies  at  New  Rochelle  were  concluded, 
Schuyler  returned  to  Albany  and  there  pursued  a 
branch  of  education  very  different,  but  quite  as 
important  for  him  as  the  courses  of  Mr.  Stouppe. 
The  property  which  he  inherited  and  upon  which 
must  be  based  his  future  fortune,  consisted  chiefly  of 
lands,  only  a  portion  of  which  was  redeemed  from 
the  forest.  He  had  to  familiarize  himself  with  these 
lands,  find  tenants  to  clear  and  plant  them,  mark  out 
the  best  sites  for  saw-mills,  superintend  their  erection, 
and  arrange  for  the  marketing  of  the  lumber.  His 

34 


business  interests  required  visits  to  Oswego,  the  dis- 
tant outpost  on  Lake  Ontario,  where  the  Dutch  trader 
and  the  Indian  hunter  met  to  exchange  peltry  for 
guns,  hatchets  and  whiskey.  He  had  to  know  that 
watery  highway,  so  often  to  be  followed  in  peace  and 
in  war — up  to  Mohawk  River,  past  the  fortress- 
dwelling  of  William  Johnson,  through  the  country 
of  the  Iroquois,  over  the  Great  Carrying  Place  to 
Oneida  Lake  and  down  the  Oneida  River  to  the  fort. 
Rough  settlers  and  lawless  traders  were  necessary 
associates  among  whom  safety  required  the  cultivation 
of  firmness  and  tact.  It  was  part  of  Schuyler's  life 
to  become  familiar  with  the  Indians,  to  learn  their 
ways,  how  to  influence  and  control  them.  The  war- 
like confederacy  of  the  Six  Nations  was  still  estab- 
lished in  the  Long  House  as  in  the  days  of  Peter 
Schuyler,  and  had  still  to  be  cajoled  or  overawed. 
The  strong  hand  of  Montcalm  held  the  destinies  of 
Canada  and  threatened  those  of  the  English  colonies. 
The  blackened  ruins  of  the  house  at  Saratoga,  where 
lay  the  ashes  of  his  murdered  Uncle  Philip,  spoke 
strongly  enough  to  the  youthful  Schuyler  of  dangers 
to  be  faced. 

This  free  and  varied  life  of  the  frontier,  in  which 
civilized  man  was  brought  so  close  to  nature  in  its 
wilder  forms,  was  full  of  pleasures  of  its  own  and  of 
stimulating  contrasts.  After  the  westward  journeys 
through  forest  trails  or  in  birch  bark  canoe  amidst  a 
wilderness  whose  human  inhabitants  were  little  less 

35 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

wild  than  the  bear  and  the  elk,  the  home  life  at 
Albany,  with  its  solid  comforts,  its  simple  but  lively 
social  pleasures,  acquired  a  peculiar  zest.  The 
winter's  day  passed  on  snowshoes  or  skates  found  a 
happy  end  with  book  or  games  before  the  roaring 
logs  of  a  Dutch  fire-place.  The  visits  to  each  other  of 
the  Hudson  River  families,  in  winter  on  sledges 
skimming  over  the  frozen  surface,  in  summer  by  the 
leisurely  sloop,  tacking  lazily  between  the  wooded 
shores,  yielded  the  more  enjoyment  that  they  were 
not  of  everyday  occurrence.  Many  and  gay  were 
the  house  parties  and  river  frolics  among  Livingstons, 
Van  Rensselaers,  Van  Brughs,  de  Peysters,  Ten 
Broecks,  Ten  Eycks,  Bleeckers,  Beeckmans,  Lansings, 
Van  Cortlandts  and  Cuylers.  And  the  sledge  or  the 
sloop  of  young  Philip  Schuyler  often  took  him  down 
the  river  to  Claverack,  where  Catherine,  the  daughter 
of  John  Van  Rensselaer,  was  the  magnet  of  greatest 
attraction. 

Before  he  had  attained  his  majority,  Schuyler  paid 
several  visits  to  New  York,  mingled  with  society  there 
and  formed  intimacies  with  young  men  who  were  to 
be  his  allies  or  adversaries  in  the  exciting  scenes  of 
future  years.  As  a  relative  of  the  principal  pro- 
prietary families  of  the  province,  and  as  a  young 
stranger  who  was  committed  to  none  of  the  political 
or  religious  parties  of  the  city,  all  doors  stood  open  to 
him.  Both  Livingstons  and  de  Lanceys  were  friendly; 
he  could  be  intimate  at  the  same  time  with  Rev.  Henry 

36 


YOUTH   OF   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Barclay,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  and  the  arch-dis- 
senter, John  Morin  Scott.  In  the  houses  of  Bayards, 
Van  Cortlandts,  Beeckmans,  Watts,  de  Peysters,  he 
met  a  circle  of  the  chief  families  of  the  town  all  more 
or  less  connected  with  his  own. 

New  York  was  a  royal  province,  differing  radically 
in  political  and  social  ideas  from  the  independent  and 
democratic  New  England.  In  these  years  preceding 
the  French  and  Indian  War,  English  prejudices  in 
favor  of  aristocratic  forms  and  a  state  church  were 
very  strong.  The  Governor's  council,  the  officials,  the 
officers  and  the  little  court  of  provincial  magnates  who 
gathered  at  Government  House  gave  the  tone  to  a 
loyal  and  submissive  community.  But  there  was  a 
party  of  opposition,  republican  in  sentiment  and  op- 
posed to  episcopacy.  In  this  party  the  leaders  were  yet 
chiefly  Presbyterians,  because  the  causes  of  division 
were  mainly  religious.  The  clergy  and  laity  of  other 
denominations  were  forced  to  contribute  to  the  salary 
of  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church.  The  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  was  known  to  have  a  plan  on  foot,  ap- 
proved by  the  ministry,  for  increasing  the  power  of 
episcopacy  in  the  province.  Many  men,  distinctly 
aristocratic  in  their  feelings,  were  driven  by  a  dread 
of  Church  predominance  and  tyranny  into  an  opposi- 
tion which  became  inevitably  the  party  of  democracy. 

In  1752,  was  formed  the  Whig  Club,  which  met 
once  a  week  at  the  King's  Arms.  Chief  among  the 
members  were  William  Livingston,  William  Smith, 

37 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Jr.,  John  Morin  Scott,  Peter  Van  Brugh  Livingston, 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  David  Van  Home,  William 
Alexander,  WUliam  Peartree  Smith  and  Dr.  John 
Jones.  These  men  discussed  politics  and  government 
in  a  manner  quite  independent  and  radical,  and  scan- 
dalized loyal  churchmen  by  drinking  the  health  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  John  Hampden  and  Hugh  Peters. 
Three  members  of  the  Whig  Club  took  the  lead: 
William  Livyigston,  William  Smith,  Jr.,  and  John 
Morin  Scott,  the  "wicked  triumvirate,"  to  whom  the 
loyalist  Judge  Jones  ascribed  the  later  troubles  of 
the  province.  They  were  all  graduates  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, an  institution  remarkable  for  "  its  republican 
principles,  its  intolerance  in  religion  and  its  utter 
aversion  to  Bishops  and  all  earthly  Kings."  Of  these 
men,  William  Livingston  was  destined  to  become  the 
distinguished  revolutionary  patriot  and  governor  of 
New  Jersey;  John  Morin  Scott,  the  leader  of  the 
"Liberty  Boys"  and  a  powerful  factor  in  the  resistance 
of  New  York  to  ministerial  tyranny;  William  Smith, 
Jr.,  the  amiable  and  witty  companion,  the  cultivated 
author  of  the  History  of  New  York,  was  to  go  far 
with  the  friends  of  his  youth,  but  to  become  at  last 
a  loyalist  and  an  exile  and  end  his  days  as  Chief 
Justice  of  Canada.  These  three  young  lawyers  car- 
ried the  war  into  Africa  and  earned  the  undying 
hatred  of  all  churchmen  by  prosecuting  at  their  own 
expense  the  great  suit  of  the  heirs  of  Anneke  Jans 
against  Trinity  Church.  With  Livingston  and  Smith, 

38 


YOUTH   OF   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Philip  Schuyler  formed  a  friendship  destined  to  be 
intimate. 

The  establishment  of  King's,  now  Columbia  Col- 
lege, was  then  proposed,  and  the  vestry  of  Trinity 
Church  offered  the  land  for  a  building  on  condition 
that  the  head  of  the  college  should  always  be  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  England  and  that  the  Episcopal 
ritual  should  always  be  used.  This  proposition  at 
once  became  the  subject  of  heated  controversy  and 
political  division.  William  Livingston  had  lately 
founded  a  weekly  publication  called  the  Independent 
Reflector,  in  which  the  social  and  political  interests 
of  the  province  were  discussed  chiefly  by  himself.  In 
the  columns  of  this  paper  he  continued  a  series  of 
articles  attacking  the  establishment  of  the  college  on 
the  terms  proposed,  taking  the  ground  that  the  money 
for  its  support  was  to  be  raised  by  a  general  tax,  while 
the  Episcopalians  were  only  a  minority  in  the  province. 
He  was  replied  to  in  Game's  Mercury  by  the  church- 
men, Barclay,  Johnson  and  Auchmuty.  Regarding 
this  controversy,  Schuyler  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Al- 
bany:— "I  send  you  the  forty-sixth  number  of  the 
Independent  Reflector,  which  is  making  a  notable  stir 
here.  The  clergy  and  all  churchmen  are  in  arms 
against  it,  and  our  friend,  Will  Livingston,  who  is  the 
principal  writer,  is  thought  by  some  to  be  one  of  the 
most  promising  men  in  the  province.  I  esteem  the 
Church  and  its  liturgy,  but  I  believe  he  is  right  in 
opposing  the  ridiculous  pretensions  of  the  clergy,  who 

39 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

would  make  it  as  infallible  as  the  Popish  church 
claims  to  be." 

During  one  of  Schuyler's  visits  to  New  York,  the 
first  theatrical  company  arrived  in  the  town.  It  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  the  Government  House  circle, 
but  a  number  of  the  more  staid  gentlemen  met  and 
agreed  not  to  countenance  the  theatre  by  their  pres- 
ence. Apparently  they  had  not  consulted  their  wives 
and  daughters,  who  were  otherwise  minded,  and  one 
by  one  they  fell  away  from  grace  and  were  seen  at 
the  theatre,  except  William  Livingston,  who  was  not 
the  man  to  yield  a  question  of  principle.  Young 
Schuyler  had  no  scruples  in  the  matter.  In  September, 
1753,  he  wrote  to  his  friend  "  Brom,"  Abram  Ten 
Broeck  of  Albany,  afterwards  an  important  per- 
sonage, one  of  those  familiar  and  illustrative  letters 
of  which  we  wish  we  had  more : — 

"The  schooner  arrived  at  Ten  Eyck's  wharf  on 
Wednesday  at  one  o'clock,  and  the  same  evening  I 
went  to  the  play  with  Phil  (Livingston).  You  know 
I  told  you  before  I  left  home  that  if  the  players  should 
be  here  I  should  see  them,  for  a  player  is  a  new  thing 
under  the  sun  in  our  good  province.  Phil's  sweetheart 
went  with  us.  She  is  a  handsome  brunette  from  Bar- 
badoes,  has  an  eye  like  that  of  a  Mohawk  beauty 
and  appears  to  possess  a  good  understanding.  Phil 
and  I  went  to  see  the  grand  battery  in  the  afternoon, 
and  to  pay  my  respects  to  the  governor,  whose  lady 
spent  a  week  with  us  last  spring,  and  we  bought  our 

.40 


YOUTH  OF  PHILIP  SCHUYLER 

play  tickets  for  eight  shillings  apiece,  at  Parker  and 
Weyman's  printing  office  in  Beaver  Street  on  our  re- 
turn. We  had  tea  at  five  o'clock,  and  before  sundown 
we  were  in  the  theatre,  for  the  players  commenced  at 
six.  The  room  was  quite  full  already.  Among  the 
company  was  your  cousin  Tom  and  Kitty  Livingston, 
and  also  Jack  Watts,  Sir  Peter  Warren's  brother-in- 
law.  I  would  like  to  tell  you  all  about  the  play,  but 
I  can't  now,  for  Billy  must  take  this  to  the  wharf  for 
Captain  Wynkoop  in  half  an  hour.  He  sails  this 
afternoon.  A  large  green  curtain  hung  before  the 
players  Until  they  were  ready  to  begin,  when,  on  the 
blast  of  a  whistle,  it  was  raised,  and  some  of  them 
appeared  and  commenced  acting.  The  play  was  called 
The  Conscious  Lovers,  written  you  know  by  Sir 
Richard  Steele,  Addison's  help  in  writing  the  Spec- 
tator. Hallam,  and  his  wife  and  sister  all  performed, 
and  a  sprightly  young  man  named  Hulett  played  the 
violin  and  danced  merrily.  But  I  said  I  could  not  tell 
you  about  the  play,  so  I  will  forbear,  only  adding  that 
I  was  not  better  pleased  than  I  should  have  been  at 
the  club,  where  last  year  I  went  with  cousin  Stephen, 
and  heard  many  wise  sayings  which  I  hope  profited  me 
something.  Tomorrow  I  expect  to  go  into  New  Jer- 
sey to  visit  Colonel  Schuyler,  who  was  at  our  house 
four  or  five  years  ago,  when  he  returned  from  Os- 
wego.  He  is  a  kinsman  and  good  soldier,  and  as  I 
believe  we  shall  have  war  again  with  the  French  quite 
as  soon  as  we  could  wish,  I  expect  he  will  lead  his 

41 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Jerseymen  to  the  field.  I  wish  you  and  I,  Brom, 
could  go  with  him.  But  I  must  say  farewell,  with 
love  to  Peggy  and  sweet  Kitty  V.  R.  if  you  see  her." 

In  the  autumn  of  1754,  Schuyler  came  of  age.  The 
English  law  of  primogeniture  gave  to  him,  as  eldest 
son,  all  the  real  estate  which  had  belonged  to  his 
father,  which  meant  substantially  the  whole  family 
property.  The  justice  of  this  law  was  no  more  ques- 
tioned in  the  province  of  New  York  than  in  England, 
nor  had  its  privileges  been  refused  by  the  eldest  son 
in  the  circle  of  land-holding  families  with  which  he 
was  connected.  But  Dutch  tradition  and  'the  gen- 
erosity of  Schuyler's  character  caused  him  to  disregard 
the  law.  The  estate  was  divided  by  him  equally 
among  his  mother's  children,  and  the  considerable 
fortune  which  he  afterwards  possessed  was  due  to  his 
own  enterprise  and  industry. 

It  was  in  this  year  that  the  first  shots  were  fired  in 
the  forests  of  Virginia  by  command  of  Colonel 
George  Washington  in  that  bloody  and  decisive 
struggle  which  in  Europe  was  called  the  Seven  Years' 
War  and  in  America  the  French  and  Indian  War. 

The  importance  of  this  great  conflict  is  somewhat 
obscured  by  the  grandeur  of  those  other  events,  the 
American  and  the  French  revolutions,  which  soon 
followed  and  were  in  considerable  measure  its  se- 
quence. But  it  largely  determined  the  future  of  the 
world.  Its  results  in  Europe  were  to  make  England 
supreme  on  the  seas,  commercially  and  in  war,  to 

42 


,     THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

make  her  the  great  colonial  nation  of  the  world,  to 
give  her  control  in  America  and  in  India.  Its  results 
in  America  were  to  abolish  the  French  power,  and 
thus  to  make  possible  the  United  States,  both  as  to 
extent  of  territory  and  as  to  political  independence. 
All  the  region  between  the  Alleghany  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence River,  was  claimed  by  France  by  right  of  ex- 
ploration and  occupation;  the  natural  highways  of 
that  vast  domain,  the  rivers  Ohio,  Mississippi,  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  great  lakes,  were  jealously  guarded 
by  forts,  under  the  command  of  officers  from  Ver- 
sailles, above  which,  in  the  endless  expanse  of  leafy 
wilderness,  floated  the  fleur-de-lis  of  the  old  mon- 
archy,— a  flag  which  represented  everything  opposed 
to  human  progress.  The  prize  grasped  by  the  wisdom 
of  Pitt  and  the  valor  of  Wolfe  became  the  inheritance 
of  the  men  who  were  to  build  up  the  American  nation. 
The  perspective  of  time  allows  us  to  see  the  ulti- 
mate meaning  of  this  great  conflict,  to  view  it  as  a 
necessary  step  in  the  world's  advance  from  the  ab- 
solutism of  the  past  to  the  enlightenment  of  the 
present.  But  even  to  the  more  limited  contemporary 
view  the  advantages  to  accrue  to  the  English  colonists 
were  visible  enough.  Philip  Schuyler  could  see  that 
with  Canada  under  British  rule,  he  might  rebuild  the 
house  at  Saratoga  without  fear  of  midnight  raids  and 
conflagration;  the  tomahawk  of  the  savage  might  be 
buried  deep  when  a  Frontenac  or  a  Montcalm  ceased 

43 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

to  incite  to  the  warpath ;  every  year  might  be  pushed 
further  to  the  westward  the  tide  of  colonization  and 
enterprise. 

The  youthful  Schuyler  played  no  such  important 
part  in  the  war  as  to  make  it  appropriate  to  follow 
the  course  of  military  operations  in  any  detail.  But 
in  this  school  he,  like  Washington,  Putnam,  Stark 
and  many  others  afterwards  distinguished  in  the 
Revolution,  obtained  such  military  experience  as  they 
had,  and  displayed  the  qualities  which,  in  the  later 
struggle,  induced  their  fellow  citizens  to  confide  to 
their  courage  and  abilities  the  safety  of  their  country. 
Early  in  1755,  Schuyler  had  raised  a  company  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Albany  and  had  received  his  com- 
mission as  captain  from  Governor  James  de  Lancey. 
Twt)  of  the  young  captain's  friends,  Henry  Van 
Schaack  and  Philip  Lansing,  enlisted  as  lieutenants 
in  his  company.  In  that  year  two  great  expeditions 
took  place  against  New  France.  In  the  south,  the 
English  general,  Braddock,  despising  provincial  ad- 
vice, clinging  obstinately  to  European  methods  of 
warfare,  led  his  regular  troops  into  the  Indian  ambus- 
cade before  Fort  Duquesne.  After  that  awful  slaugh- 
ter in  the  forests  of  the  western  wilderness,  while  his 
own  life  was  ebbing  away,  he  realized  that  Colonel 
Washington  of  Virginia  knew  something  about  fight- 
ing French  and  Indians.  In  the  north,  this  crushing 
defeat  was  redeemed  by  a  victory  won  by  provincials, 
fighting  in  provincial  style. 

44 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

The  object  of  the  northern  expedition  was  Crown 
Point,  a  fort  on  a  peninsula  projecting  into  Lake 
Champlain,  which  commanded  the  passage  of  the  lake 
and  for  many  years  had  threatened  the  English 
colonies.  The  commander  chosen  was  William  John- 
son, an  Irishman,  nephew  of  Sir  Peter  Warren,  who 
acquired  extensive  lands  on  the  Mohawk  River 
through  his  marriage  with  Miss  Watts  of  New  York, 
and  had  sent  out  this  nephew  to  manage  them.  About 
nine  years  before  this  time  Johnson  was  living  ob- 
scurely among  the  Indians  on  the  Mohawk,  when  an 
event  occurred  which  opened  a  path  to  his  ambition 
which  he  trod  thenceforward  to  wealth  and  distinc- 
tion. Governor  Clinton  of  New  York  and  James  de 
Lancey,  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  province,  were  inti- 
mate friends  and  together  controlled  public  affairs  at 
their  will.  One  night  at  Government  House,  when  the 
two  friends  had  been  drinking  together,  a  violent 
quarrel  arose  between  them,  and  de  Lancey  left  with 
revengeful  threats  which  he  did  not  fail  to  execute. 
The  ensuing  enmity  between  the  Governor  and  the 
Chief  Justice  became  a  source  of  great  divisions  in  the 
province.  Clinton  had  his  official  power,  and  de 
Lancey  his  influence  with  the  Assembly  to  use  in  the 
conflict.  Each  dealt  severe  blows  at  the  interests  and 
the  friends  of  his  opponent.  Peter  Schuyler,  Philip's 
cousin,  was  then  the  Indian  Commissioner  for  the 
Six  Nations,  an  office  almost  hereditary  in  that  family. 
But  he  was  known  as  de  Lancey's  friend.  Clinton  put 

45 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

in  his  place  William  Johnson,  who  was  to  show  him- 
self wonderfully  adapted  for  it. 

Johnson  lived  a  wild  and  adventurous  life  in  his 
fortified  house  on  the  Mohawk,  wielding  undisputed 
sway  over  his  white  tenantry  and  exerting  the  power 
of  a  sachem  among  the  Six  Nations.  His  house  was 
always  thronged  with  Indians  whose  sleeping  forms 
encumbered  the  lower  rooms  and  hall-ways  at  night. 
Fort  Johnson,  as  it  was  called,  was  the  chief  stopping 
place  on  the  route  between  the  Hudson  River  and 
the  fort  on  Lake  Ontario.  The  fur  trader  and  the 
land  prospector  received  its  hospitalities  and  protec- 
tion as  they  came  and  went.  Philip  Schuyler  knew  it 
and  its  owner  well.  Over  this  semi-civilized  house- 
hold presided  for  a  time  a  Dutch  wife  who  had  two 
daughters.  When  she  died  her  place  was  taken  by  a 
succession  of  squaws,  among  whom  was  a  sister  of 
the  celebrated  Brant.  The  two  daughters  were  kept 
on  an  upper  floor,  isolated  as  much  as  possible  from 
the  wild  life  about  them,  under  the  charge  of  a  gov- 
erness, who  formed  their  only  society.  They  both 
grew  up  and  married.  Johnson  himself  was  power- 
fully built,  with  a  good  intelligence,  rough  but  jovial, 
accustomed  to  adapt  himself  to  any  surroundings, 
painting  and  dressing  like  a  savage  when  it  suited  his 
purpose,  disputing  with  the  Indian  orators  the  palm  of 
prolixity  and  imagery,  yet  keeping  up  his  relations 
with  civilization  and  always  on  good  terms  with  Gov- 
ernment House.  He  had  no  knowledge  of  military 

46 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

affairs,  but  he  brought  to  his  work  his  forest  experi- 
ence. He  was  the  very  opposite  of  Braddock  and  met 
with  an  opposite  fortune. 

The  rendezvous  of  the  forces  intended  to  attack 
Crown  Point  was  at  The  Flatts,  above  Albany,  near 
the  Schuyler  house.  They  numbered  in  all  about  three 
thousand,  the  New  England  men  under  General  Ly- 
man,  the  New  York  regiment  under  Johnson,  while 
the  wise  old  chief  Hendrick  commanded  the  Indians. 
Among  the  New  Englanders  was  Colonel  Ephraim 
Williams,  whose  will,  then  made  at  The  Flatts,  found- 
ed Williams  College,  Lieutenant  John  Stark  and 
Israel  Putnam,  beginning  brilliant  careers.  Johnson 
was  very  slow  about  starting.  The  New  England 
men,  then,  as  afterwards  in  the  Revolution,  were 
ready  to  leave  their  homes  to  fight;  but  to  remain 
inactive  in  camp  under  military  discipline  was  intoler- 
able to  them.  To  hold  together  his  independent  sol- 
diers, Lyman  started  out  in  advance,  and  through  the 
hot  July  days  slowly  made  his  way  northward  to  a 
point  on  the  upper  Hudson  where  began  the  long 
"carry"  through  the  woods  to  Lake  George.  There 
he  began  the  construction  of  a  fort,  called  Fort  Ly- 
man, but  afterwards  known  as  Fort  Edward. 

In  August,  Johnson  moved  at  last,  with  his  New 
York  companies  and  his  Indians,  stopping  in  the 
woods  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  and  in  his  jovial  manner 
gathering  his  officers  around  a  punch  bowl.  Arrived 
at  Fort  Lyman,  he  left  five  hundred  men  there  to 

47 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

finish  and  garrison  the  fort,  and  then  with  the  rest 
of  the  troops  he  moved  northward  over  the  "great 
carrying  place,"  a  band  of  men  with  axes  going  ahead 
to  clear  a  rough  road  through  the  forest.  At  length 
the  little  army  arrived  at  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  beautiful  lake,  of  which  the  quiet  solitude  was 
soon  to  be  rudely  broken.  "I  found,"  said  Johnson, 
"a  mere  wilderness;  never  was  house  or  fort  erected 
here  before."  The  waters  which  the  French  called 
Lac  St.  Sacrement,  Johnson  named  Lake  George, 
"not  in  simple  honor  of  his  Majesty,  but  to  assert  his 
undoubted  dominion  here."  The  army  then  went  into 
camp,  a  motley  and  ill-disciplined  assemblage,  the 
New  England  ministers  exhorting  against  "cursing 
and  swearing,"  and  preaching  their  sermons  to  sol- 
diers and  savages. 

Meanwhile  the  French  had  no  idea  of  waiting  to 
be  attacked.  Baron  Dieskau,  with  three  thousand 
regulars,  Canadians  and  Indians,  had  moved  south- 
ward to  Crown  Point.  He  was  not  only  a  trained 
soldier,  but  far  surpassed  Johnson  in  energy  and  judg- 
ment. Finding  no  indications  of  an  enemy  at  Crown 
Point,  he  continued  southward  to  Ticonderoga.  There 
his  scouts  brought  in  a  prisoner  who  gave  him  in- 
formation of  Fort  Lyman.  The  bold  Dieskau  pushed 
on,  making  a  circuit  to  the  east  of  Lake  George  by 
way  of  the  South  Bay,  and  at  length  found  himself 
on  the  rough  forest  road  which  connected  Fort  Lyman 
with  Johnson's  Camp.  He  had  hardly  arrived  there 

48 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

when  a  man  came  galloping  down  the  road.  Dieskau's 
Indians  shot  and  scalped  him.  Upon  him  was  found 
a  letter  from  Johnson  to  the  officer  in  command  of 
Fort  Lyman,  warning  him  of  Dieskau's  approach. 
Johnson's  scouts  to  the  eastward  had  come  in  report- 
ing the  woods  to  be  swarming  with  French  and  In- 
dians heading  toward  Fort  Lyman,  and  Johnson  had 
sent  off  the  ill-fated  messenger.  This  was  the  first  that 
Dieskau  knew  of  Johnson's  Camp.  Soon  afterwards 
some  mutinous  waggoners  who  had  deserted  from  the 
camp  came  down  the  road.  Two  were  shot,  two  were 
made  prisoners  and  gave  Dieskau  full  information  of 
the  forces  at  Fort  Lyman  and  the  camp  at  Lake 
George.  Others  escaped  and  hastening  backward, 
told  Johnson  of  Dieskau's  position.  Each  commander 
now  understood  the  position  of  his  enemy. 

Dieskau  was  anxious  to  continue  southward  and 
take  Fort  Lyman  first.  But  his  savage  allies  had  a 
great  dread  of  cannon  which  they  supposed  would  be 
in  action  at  the  fort.  They  refused  to  follow  the 
French  there,  but  consented  to  attack  the  camp  at 
Lake  George,  although  it  contained  the  main  body 
of  the  enemy.  Early  the  next  morning  Dieskau  set 
out  along  the  road  to  the  north  and  had  got  within 
three  miles  of  Johnson's  Camp  when  his  scouts 
brought  in  a  prisoner  who  gave  the  information  that 
an  attacking  force  had  left  the  camp.  The  news  was 
true.  Johnson  had  sent  out  a  thousand  men  under 
Colonel  Williams  and  Chief  Hendrick.  Dieskau 

49 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

immediately  disposed  his  Canadians  and  Indians  on 
both  sides  of  the  road  in  ambush.  Into  the  fatal  am- 
buscade Williams  and  Hendrick  marched  at  the  head 
of  their  column  and  fell  at  the  first  fire.  A  panic 
seized  the  English  force  taken  by  surprise  and  a  re- 
treat to  the  camp  began.  But  the  vanguard,  now 
become  the  rear,  fought  so  obstinately  from  behind 
the  trees,  that  the  retreat  soon  became  orderly  and 
Dieskau's  force  was  by  no  means  in  a  triumphant 
mood  as  it  advanced.  This  engagement  was  long 
talked  of  at  Dutch  and  New  England  firesides  as  "the 
bloody  morning  scout." 

In  the  camp,  the  sound  of  musketry  was  distinctly 
heard.  It  grew  louder  and  louder,  and  then  the  Eng- 
lish knew  that  their  comrades  were  retreating.  At  the 
eleventh  hour,  when  almost  too  late,  Johnson  at- 
tempted to  fortify  his  position.  Trees  were  hastily 
felled  and  a  rough  obstruction  raised.  The  ambushed 
column  began  to  arrive,  first  frightened  stragglers, 
then  men  carrying  the  wounded,  then  the  main  body 
in  good  order,  firing  to  the  last.  Every  man  was 
placed  in  position.  Some  cannon  were  dragged  up  a 
bank  in  the  rear  of  the  camp  and  breastworks  hastily 
thrown  up  about  them.  Dieskau's  white-coated  regu- 
lars soon  appeared  in  serried  rank,  their  bayonets 
flashing  among  the  trees.  The  Canadians  and  Indians 
approached  on  either  flank  uttering  frightful  yells. 
It  was  the  critical  moment.  The  provincial  troops 
within  the  camp  had  never  been  under  fire  before. 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

Many  were  seen  to  shrink.  But  the  officers  with 
drawn  swords  threatened  and  exhorted.  The  enemy 
was  in  front,  the  lake  behind. 

The  gallant  French  commander  had  hastened  on 
in  front,  planning  to  enter  the  camp  on  the  heels  of 
the  retreating  column.  Could  he  have  done  this,  his 
success  was  assured.  But  the  Canadians  and  Indians, 
at  sight  of  the  cannon,  scattered  widely  among  the 
trees,  beyond  the  reach  of  orders.  The  French  regu- 
lars received  the  full  fire  of  cannon  and  musketry  as 
they  stood  exposed  and  they  too  sought  the  shelter  of 
the  trees.  Then  for  five  hours  raged  the  forest  con- 
flict, five  thousand  muskets  discharged  as  fast  as  they 
could  be  loaded,  the  cannon  booming  and  the  balls 
crashing  among  the  branches.  Dieskau  had  had  a 
poor  opinion  of  the  English  provincials,  and  when  he 
heard  their  numbers,  said  there  were  only  so  many 
more  to  kill.  But  after  this  battle  his  opinion  changed. 
"They  fought  in  the  morning  like  good  boys,  at  noon 
like  men  and  in  the  afternoon  like  devils."  Johnson 
retired  early  to  his  tent  with  a  shot  through  his  hip. 
Lyman  conducted  the  defence  with  the  greatest  in- 
trepidity, and  its  success  was  mainly  owing  to  him. 
The  French  officer,  St.  Pierre,  in  command  of  the 
Indians,  the  same  to  whom  Washington  had  carried 
Governor  Dinwiddie's  letter  in  the  western  forest, 
was  killed.  Dieskau,  shot  through  the  leg,  sat  on  a  log 
for  hours  giving  his  orders.  The  French  fire  slack- 
ened at  last,  and  the  English  leaping  over  the  breast- 
Si 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

work  of  logs,  dashed  upon  their  enemy  hatchet  in 
hand.  Too  exhausted  to  resist,  the  French  fled 
through  the  woods  and  the  day  was  won. 

The  unfortunate  Dieskau,  as  he  sat  wounded  on  a 
fallen  tree,  attended  only  by  his  aide-de-camrj,  Bernier, 
was  shot  twice  again  in  this  final  onslaught.  Carried 
into  the  camp,  he  was  received  into  Johnson's  tent, 
where  his  generous  captor  spared  no  effort  to  relieve 
his  sufferings.  The  two  commanders  lay  side  by  side, 
receiving  the  same  medical  attention,  such  as  it  was, 
and  discussing  in  a  friendly  manner  the  past  events. 
Schuyler's  knowledge  of  the  French  language  was 
now  useful.  He  was  assiduous  in  his  attention  to 
Dieskau  and  Bernier  and  became  intimate  with  both. 
Johnson's  Indians,  when  they  returned  from  the 
woods  with  the  scalps  of  the  dead,  were  incensed  that 
the  prisoners  were  not  delivered  over  to  their  venge- 
ance. Dieskau,  especially,  was  the  object  of  their 
bloodthirsty  anger,  and  they  demanded  his  life  in  re- 
turn for  that  of  their  fallen  chiefs.  Johnson  was  firm 
in  defence  of  his  prisoner  and  took  every  precaution 
to  protect  him.  "What  do  they  want  of  me?"  asked 
Dieskau,  observing  the  threatening  concourse  of  sav- 
ages around  the  tent.  "They  want  to  kill  and  eat 
you,  and  put  you  in  their  pipes  and  smoke  you,"  an- 
swered Johnson,  "but  they  shall  not  while  I  live."  It 
became  imperative  to  send  the  prisoners  away,  and 
Captain  Schuyler  was  ordered  to  convey  them  to 

52 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

Albany.  Johnson  lent  Dieskau  fifty  pounds  on  his 
departure. 

The  wounded  man  was  borne  on  a  litter  over  the 
rough  "carry"  to  the  Hudson,  and  there  Schuyler  had 
him  placed  in  a  batteau.  With  the  other  prisoners, 
Schuyler  hastened  in  advance  and  when  Dieskau  ar- 
rived, comfortable  quarters  were  ready  for  him  and 
Bernier,  who  was  also  wounded.  The  battle  and  its 
result  were  known  in  Albany,  and  the  rejoicing  was 
naturally  great.  Had  Johnson's  camp  been  defended 
with  less  valor,  had  the  chances  of  war  been  less  favor- 
able to  him,  Dieskau,  with  his  white-coated  French- 
men, his  rough  Canadians  and  his  painted  savages, 
would  have  entered  the  town  as  a  conqueror  instead 
of  a  shattered  prisoner.  The  imagination  of  the  in- 
habitants did  not  need  to  be  vivid  to  portray  to  them 
the  inevitable  consequences.  Hence,  the  young 
Schuyler,  fresh  from  the  bloody  field  where  he  had 
performed  his  part,  met  with  a  cordial  reception. 

Nine  days  after  the  fight,  on  the  i  yth  of  September, 
he  was  married  to  the  "sweet  Kitty  V.  R.,"  mentioned 
in  the  letter  to  "Brom,"  the  daughter  of  John  Van 
Rensselaer  of  Claverack,  and  like  himself  a  descendant 
of  Philip  Pieterse  Schuyler.  For  a  week  after  the 
wedding  he  remained  in  Albany,  his  attention  divided 
between  his  bride  and  his  French  friends. 

How  much  the  wounded  officers  owed  to  him,  and 
after  his  departure,  to  the  kindness  of  his  wife  and 
mother,  is  shown  by  the  following  letter  written  to 

53 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

him  in  French  by  Bernier,  October  the  5th: — "I  have 
received,  sir,  and  dear  friend,  the  letter  which  you 
have  done  me  the  honor  to  write  to  me  from  your 
camp.  It  is  full  of  politeness  and  sentiment.  As  to 
the  portion  intended  particularly  for  me,  I  am  truly 
sensible;  and  I  should  esteem  myself  infinitely  happy 
to  be  able  to  give  you  some  marks  of  my  gratitude, 
and  of  the  esteem  and  friendship  which  are  due  to 
you.  I  have  read  the  letter  to  the  Baron  Dieskau.  It 
has  confirmed  him  in  the  good  opinion  of  you,  which, 
you  know,  he  has  reason  to  entertain.  He  is  still  as 
when  you  left  him — still  suffering,  and  uncertain  how 
his  wounds  will  end  at  last.  He  charges  me  to  pray 
you,  in  his  behalf,  to  present  his  compliments  to  M.  de 
Johnson,  and  to  assure  him  of  the  extent  of  his  grati- 
tude to  him.  His  greatest  desire  is  to  be  able  to  write 
to  him  himself.  I  pray  you  add  to  the  Baron's  wishes 
my  very  humble  respects.  One  can  add  nothing  to 
the  politeness  of  Madame,  your  mother,  and  Madame, 
your  wife.  Every  day  there  come  from  them  to  the 
Baron,  fruits  and  other  rare  sweets  which  are  of 
great  service  to  him.  He  orders  me,  on  this  subject, 
to  express  to  you  all  that  he  owes  to  the  attentions  of 
these  ladies.  If  it  was  permitted  me  to  go  out,  I 
should  already  have  been  often  to  present  to  them  his 
respects  and  mine.  The  Baron  has  been  much  pleased 
to  learn  by  your  letter  that  General  de  Johnson  es- 
teems you  and  gives  you  marks  of  his  consideration 
and  kindness.  If  he  shall  have  the  happiness  to  be 

54 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

restored  to  health,  and  to  see  your  general  again,  he 
will  himself  be  the  proclaimer  of  all  the  good  words 
which  should  be  said  of  you,  and  which  in  justice  he 
owes  you,  for  the  trouble  and  care  you  have  had  for 
him." 

Johnson  showed  his  incapacity  as  a  general  by  not 
following  up  his  advantage  and  taking  Crown  Point 
when  he  could.  Lyman  would  gladly  have  led  his 
New  England  men  to  a  second  and  decisive  victory, 
but  that  Johnson's  jealousy  would  not  permit,  and 
Crown  Point  remained  as  hitherto  a  constant  menace. 
But  the  victory  won  at  the  camp  at  Lake  George  was 
the  solitary  success  in  a  year  of  disaster.  The  King  of 
England  marked  his  appreciation  by  a  gift  to  Johnson 
of  five  thousand  pounds  and  by  creating  him  a  baronet. 
Hereafter  he  is  known  as  Sir  William  Johnson  of 
Johnson  Hall.  Schuyler  remained  in  camp  until  it 
broke  up  late  in  the  autumn,  and  during  the  winter, 
although  able  to  be  much  in  Albany  with  his  family, 
he  was  employed  in  making  Fort  Edward  a  depot  of 
military  stores. 

There  was  stationed  in  Albany  that  winter  an  Eng- 
lish officer  named  Colonel  John  Bradstreet,  who  had 
already  rendered  good  services  to  his  government  and 
was  destined  to  be  much  employed  in  the  future  course 
of  the  war.  Although  Bradstreet  was  much  the  senior 
of  Schuyler,  the  two  men  formed  an  intimate  friend- 
ship which  had  important  results  for  both.  In  the 
spring  of  1756,  Bradstreet  was  sent  at  the  head  of  an 

55 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

expedition  to  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario,  with  the 
double  purpose  of  keeping  open  the  communications 
with  that  western  post  and  of  supplying  it  with  mili- 
tary stores.  Schuyler  received  orders  to  accompany 
him. 

The  expedition,  which  consisted  of  about  two  thou- 
sand boatmen  and  provincial  soldiers,  followed  in 
safety  the  western  route  of  river  and  lake  and  forest 
"carry"  already  familiar  to  Schuyler.  The  stores 
were  deposited  at  the  Oswego  fort,  where  Peter 
Schuyler  was  in  command  with  his  "Jersey  Blues," 
and  where  he  was  soon  to  be  attacked  and  captured 
by  Montcalm.  In  the  beginning  of  July,  Bradstreet's 
force  started  on  its  homeward  journey.  The  long  line 
of  canoes  was  paddled  slowly  against  the  current  of 
the  Oswego  River,  between  the  shores  of  virgin  forest. 
The  van,  consisting  of  about  three  hundred  men,  with 
Bradstreet  and  Schuyler  at  their  head,  had  proceeded 
about  nine  miles,  the  silence  of  nature  hardly  broken 
by  the  sound  of  voice  or  paddle,  when  suddenly  from 
the  forest  on  the  east  bank  came  the  rattle  of  musketry 
and  a  shower  of  bullets.  The  volley  had  been  fired 
by  a  force  of  about  seven  hundred  men  under  Coulon 
de  Villiers,  whom  Governor  Vaudreuil  had  sent  to 
close  the  communications  between  Oswego  and 
Albany. 

In  the  canoes,  many  men  had  been  struck.  The 
rest,  knowing  themselves  to  be  a  shining  mark  for  an 
enemy  they  could  not  see,  paddled  hastily  for  the  west 

56 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

bank  and  sought  shelter  among  the  trees.  Elated  by 
their  success,  the  French  started  to  cross  the  river  by 
means  of  an  island  a  little  further  up  stream,  with 
the  intention  of  attacking  the  English  before  they 
could  recover  themselves.  Bradstreet  saw  the  move- 
ment and  acted  instantly.  He,  with  Schuyler  and  six 
boatmen,  paddled  quickly  to  the  island,  reached  it  be- 
fore the  French,  jumped  from  their  canoes,  posted 
themselves  behind  trees  and  fired  at  the  Frenchmen 
in  the  water  as  fast  as  they  could  load.  For  a  few 
moments,  but  all  important  moments,  they  held  the 
French  in  check.  Then  they  were  joined  by  twenty 
more  boatmen.  Three  times  the  French  attempted  to 
cross,  but  they  were  no  sooner  in  the  river  and  ex- 
posed to  fire  than  a  well  aimed  volley  drove  them  back 
to  cover.  Repelled  at  this  point,  Coulon  de  Villiers 
led  his  men  up  the  east  bank,  with  the  intention  of 
crossing  by  an  upper  ford.  Meanwhile  the  English 
had  recovered  themselves  and  reinforcements  had  ar- 
rived. Bradstreet  took  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
and  marched  up  the  west  bank.  But  the  French  had 
crossed  before  he  arrived  and  for  some  time  an  inde- 
cisive exchange  of  shots  took  place  from  behind  trees. 
At  last  Bradstreet  passed  along  an  order  for  a  charge. 
His  men  made  a  rush,  drove  the  French  across  the 
river  and  shot  many  as  they  passed.  Another  party  of 
French  who  had  crossed  further  up  and  now  sought 
to  join  their  comrades  were  in  turn  attacked  and 

57 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

driven  off.  Thus  the  day,  which  had  opened  so  in- 
auspiciously  for  Bradstreet's  command,  was,  by  cool- 
ness and  vigor,  victoriously  ended.  The  expedition 
continued  its  journey  to  Albany  with  some  prisoners 
and  a  goodly  collection  of  French  muskets  and  knap- 
sacks. Bradstreet's  action  in  this  engagement  after- 
wards received  the  praise  of  Wolfe. 

Schuyler's  humanity  and  generosity  are  illustrated 
by  an  occurrence  which  took  place  on  the  day  of  this 
fight.  When  Bradstreet  and  his  little  company  on 
the  island  had  repelled  the  French  and  saw  them  mov- 
ing up  the  river,  they  entered  their  canoes  to  join  the 
force  on  the  west  bank.  A  Canadian  had  fallen  just 
as  he  reached  the  shore  of  the  island  and  as  his 
enemies  were  departing  begged  them  not  to  leave  him 
there  to  a  lingering  death.  The  canoes  were  already 
full  and  his  request  was  refused.  But  Schuyler  jumped 
ashore,  took  the  man  on  his  back,  waded  across  the 
stream  and  placed  the  wounded  Canadian  in  the  care 
of  Dr.  Kirkland,  the  army  surgeon.  In  1775,  when 
Schuyler,  in  command  of  the  northern  department, 
was  in  camp  at  Isle  aux  Noix  in  Canada,  this  man 
enlisted  in  the  continental  army  and  appeared  at  the 
general's  tent  to  thank  him. 

In  the  Spring  of  1758,  Albany  was  the  scene  of 
unprecedented  military  preparations.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  quiet  frontier  town  were  almost  lost  in  the 
crowd  of  soldiers  and  boatmen  who  were  camped  in 
its  neighborhood  and  who  thronged  its  streets  with 

58 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

little  regard  to  discipline.  The  great  and  ill-fated  ex- 
pedition against  Ticonderoga  was  on  foot,  bringing 
together  such  a  military  assemblage  as  had  never  been 
seen  in  the  province.  For  months  there  was  a  camp 
about  Mrs.  Schuyler's  house  at  The  Flatts,  and  there 
sat  at  her  hospitable  board  many  officers  whose  names 
were  to  be  familiar  in  American  history.  There  was 
Abercrombie,  the  incompetent  general  in  command, 
who  stupidly  sacrificed  his  brave  men  before  the 
breastworks  of  Ticonderoga.  There  was  the  gallant 
Lord  Howe,  elder  brother  of  the  Richard  and  Wil- 
liam Howe  afterwards  sent  to  subdue  the  colonies, 
now  the  second  in  command,  but  the  soul  of  the  army; 
whose  death,  as  he  led  the  van  through  the  forest, 
involved  the  defeat  and  ruin  of  all.  There  was  Gen- 
eral Gage,  later  to  command  the  British  troops 
against  rebellious  Boston;  and  Charles  Lee,  later  to 
play  so  contemptible  a  part  in  the  continental  army. 
Among  the  provincials  were  Stark  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, then  a  captain,  and  Putnam  of  Connecticut,  then 
a  major. 

At  this  interesting  and  exciting  time,  Philip 
Schuyler  was  living  at  The  Flatts  with  his  aunt.  He 
was  now  deputy  commissary  with  the  rank  of  major. 
Constant  association  with  the  British  officers  was 
teaching  him  much  of  the  principles  of  regular  war- 
fare, of  the  discipline  necessary  to  control  large  bodies 
of  men,  and  of  the  measures  to  be  taken  to  keep  an 
army  in  supplies.  It  was  for  the  latter  service  that  he 

59 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

was  especially  employed,  his  knowledge  of  the  coun- 
try and  its  resources  and  his  business  ability  being 
found  valuable.  The  contempt  felt  or  affected  by  the 
British  officers  for  the  provincials  alienated  many 
who  might  have  been  useful.  It  was  only  the  more 
determined  among  the  Americans  who  would  endure 
the  slights  put  upon  them  for  the  sake  of  remaining 
in  the  service. 

Lord  Howe's  mind  was  of  too  high  an  order  to 
entertain  such  prejudices.  A  truly  great  soldier,  he 
recognized  that  European  methods  of  warfare  were 
not  to  be  rigidly  followed  in  American  forests.  He 
made  a  friend  of  young  Schuyler,  who  could  tell  him 
much  of  the  geographical  and  natural  conditions  of 
the  coming  campaign ;  he  was  in  frequent  consultation 
with  Stark,  Rogers  and  Putnam,  who  knew  the  woods 
and  the  waterways  and  had  experience  of  Indian  and 
Canadian  fighting.  But  the  noble  nature  which  made 
him  beloved  at  The  Flatts  and  its  most  welcome  vis- 
itor, the  military  genius  which  attracted  the  universal 
confidence  of  the  army,  were  not  destined  to  fulfil  their 
mission.  "A  few  days  after  Lord  Howe's  departure, 
in  the  afternoon,"  says  Mrs.  Grant,  "a  man  was  seen 
coming  on  horseback  from  the  north,  galloping  vio- 
lently without  his  hat.  Pedrom,  as  he  was  familiarly 
called,  the  Colonel's  only  surviving  brother,  was  with 
Aunt  Schuyler,  and  ran  instantly  to  inquire,  well  know- 
ing he  rode  express.  The  man  galloped  on,  crying  out 
that  Lord  Howe  was  killed.  The  mind  of  our  good 

60 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

aunt  had  been  so  engrossed  by  her  anxiety  for  the 
event  impending,  and  so  impressed  by  the  merit  of  her 
favorite  hero,  that  her  wonted  firmness  sunk  under  the 
stroke,  and  she  broke  out  into  bitter  lamentations. 
This  had  such  an  effect  on  her  friends  and  domestics 
that  shrieks  and  sobs  of  anguish  echoed  through  every 
part  of  the  house."  Philip  Schuyler  brought  back  the 
body  of  the  lamented  soldier  and  placed  it  in  the 
family  vault,  where  it  remained  until  permanently 
interred  under  the  Chancel  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in 
Albany.  Massachusetts  erected  a  monument  in  West- 
minster Abbey  which  commemorates  the  universal 
grief  of  the  colonies. 

When  that  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men, which  had 
floated  in  grand  procession  over  the  waters  of  Lake 
George  with  flags  flying  and  bands  playing,  had  been 
repulsed  with  terrible  slaughter  by  Montcalm  at 
Ticonderoga ;  when  the  incompetent  Abercrombie  re- 
mained in  supine  inactivity,  unable  to  take  measures 
to  retrieve  the  disaster,  there  was  great  indignation 
among  the  lesser  officers  and  the  troops.  None  felt 
more  strongly  than  Schuyler's  friend,  the  enterprising 
Bradstreet.  After  urgent  entreaties,  he  obtained  per- 
mission to  lead  an  expedition  against  Fort  Frontenac 
on  Lake  Ontario.  Fort  Frontenac  was  situated  on 
the  north  shore  of  the  lake,  and  since  the  destruction  of 
the  rival  English  fort,  Oswego,  on  the  south  shore,  it 
commanded  the  passage  of  the  western  lakes.  When 
Montcalm  had  forced  Peter  Schuyler  of  New  Jersey 

61 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

to  surrender  at  Oswego  and  had  burned  the  fort,  he 
considered  that  a  great  triumph  had  been  achieved  for 
Canada.  No  English  military  post  then  interfered 
with  the  French  possession  of  that  vast  western  do- 
main. Bradstreet,  with  a  true  military  instinct,  saw 
the  importance  of  taking  Fort  Frontenac  and  thus 
shutting  off  the  western  trade  of  Canada.  And  he 
gave  Abercrombie  no  time  to  withdraw  his  permission. 
A  contemporary  says  that  "he  flew  rather  than 
marched"  over  the  route  to  the  lake.  He  had  been 
allowed  three  thousand  men,  nearly  all  provincials. 

Philip  Schuyler,  who  understood  boat  building, 
pushed  on  in  advance  with  a  large  party  of  carpenters 
and  boatmen.  He  found  Oswego  a  charred  and 
desolate  ruin,  with  no  sign  of  human  occupation  but 
the  huge  wooden  cross  which  the  French  had  planted 
as  a  sign  of  their  possession.  He  lost  no  time  in  set- 
ting about  his  work,  and  in  three  weeks  had  built  a 
sloop  which  he  called  the  Mohawk  and  which  was 
capable  of  carrying  the  cannon  of  the  expedition  to 
Frontenac. 

With  the  Mohawk  and  a  fleet  of  boats,  Bradstreet 
appeared  before  Fort  Frontenac  on  the  evening  of 
August  25th,  to  the  astonishment  of  Noyau,  its  com- 
mander. He  despatched  couriers  to  M.  de  Vaudreuil 
at  Montreal,  begging  for  reinforcements.  The  French 
Governor,  realizing  the  importance  of  the  emergency, 
gathered  fifteen  hundred  men  from  the  harvest  fields 

62 


THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

and  sent  them  off  in  haste.  But  it  was  too  late.  Brad- 
street's  cannon,  unloaded  from  the  Mohawk,  and  ad- 
vantageously posted,  swept  the  interior  of  the  fort. 
The  Indians  fled  and  the  garrison  soon  surrendered. 
Noyau,  the  commander,  was  allowed  to  go  to  Mont- 
real on  condition  that  he  would  effect  an  exchange 
between  himself  and  Colonel  Peter  Schuyler,  made 
prisoner  at  Oswego.  The  capture  of  Frontenac  was 
felt  as  a  very  serious  blow  by  Montcalm.  It  did  much 
to  retrieve  the  disgraceful  defeat  of  Abercrombie  and 
enhanced  the  reputation  of  Bradstreet.  Again,  the 
real  work  of  the  war  was  done  by  provincials. 

The  active  service  of  Philip  Schuyler  terminated 
with  the  expedition  against  Frontenac.  During  the 
campaign  of  Wolfe  and  Amherst,  in  1759,  he  was 
employed  at  Albany  in  collecting  and  forwarding  sup- 
plies for  the  army.  Considering  the  duties  which  were 
to  be  laid  upon  him  in  the  future,  his  military  experi- 
ence had  been  of  great  value.  In  Johnson's  camp  at 
Lake  George,  by  Bradstreet's  side  on  the  Oswego 
river,  he  had  fought  the  close  and  desperate  fight 
characteristic  of  American  forests,  where  man  was 
pitted  against  man,  where  dauntless  courage  was  es- 
sential, where  the  scalping  knife  of  the  savage  awaited 
the  wavering  or  the  disabled  soldier.  He  had  learned 
the  methods  of  moving  large  bodies  of  men  in  a 
country  of  rivers  and  forests,  the  precautions  against 
ambuscade,  the  building  and  management  of  boats. 
The  collection  and  distribution  of  military  stores  had 

63 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

been  entrusted  largely  to  him,  and  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  war  there  was  no  young  man  in  the  province 
who  understood  the  duty  better.  His  natural  mental 
gifts  and  the  constant  association  during  five  years 
with  military  officers  had  taught  him  what  a  soldier's 
life  involved:  the  importance  of  discipline,  the  pro- 
vision for  the  future,  the  necessity  of  meeting  varying 
conditions  with  new  expedients.  The  trained  and 
enterprising  Bradstreet  was  a  good  teacher,  the  noble 
Howe,  an  example,  the  narrow  and  poor  spirited 
Abercrombie  a  warning. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  Visit  to  England. — Home  and  Business  Life. — 

Member  of  Provincial  Assembly. — The  Revo- 

lution. — Appointed  Major-General. 

ON  retiring  from  military  service,  Schuyler  set- 
tled down  at  The  Flatts  with  his  young  wife 
and  children  and  devoted  himself  to  his 
private  business.  But  from  this  pleasant  life,  he  was 
soon  called  away  by  a  new  and  interesting  adventure. 
Colonel  Bradstreet  had  another  campaign  on  hand 
in  1760,  against  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French  in  the 
west.  His  health  was  poor  and  he  had  accounts  with 
the  government  covering  several  years  which  gave  him 
much  anxiety.  In  this  difficulty  he  turned  to  his  young 
friend  Schuyler.  "Your  zeal,  punctuality  and  strict 
honesty  in  his  Majesty's  service,"  he  wrote,  "under  my 
direction,  for  several  years  past,  are  sufficient  proofs 
that  I  can't  leave  my  public  accounts  and  papers  in  a 
more  faithful  hand  than  yours  to  be  settled,  should 
any  accident  happen  to  me  this  campaign;  wherefore 
that  I  may  provide  against  it  and  that  a  faithful  ac- 
count may  be  rendered  to  the  public  of  all  the  public 
money  that  I  have  received  since  the  war,  I  now  de- 
liver to  you  all  my  public  accounts  and  vouchers  and 

65 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

do  hereby  empower  you  to  settle  them  with  whomso- 
ever may  be  appointed  for  that  purpose,  either  in 
America  or  England." 

The  difficulty  of  concluding  such  business  satisfac- 
torily in  the  province  determined  Schuyler  to  go  to 
London.  A  visit  to  Europe  was  a  rare  experience  for 
a  young  provincial  of  those  days  and  this  one  was 
destined  to  be  adventurous  and  improving.  It  was  in 
February,  1761,  that  he  sailed  in  a  packet  called  the 
"General  Wall."  His  mathematical  tastes  were  ap- 
plied at  once  to  a  study  of  navigation;  and  soon  after, 
the  captain  dying,  the  proficiency  he  had  acquired  re- 
sulted in  his  being  requested  by  passengers  and  crew 
to  assume  the  command.  Schuyler  was  then  but 
twenty-eight  years  of  age,  but  experience  had  given 
him  the  habit  of  authority  and  of  self-reliance.  He 
navigated  the  vessel  successfully  until  the  coast  of 
Europe  was  near.  Although  the  war  was  over  in 
America,  it  was  still  raging  between  England  and 
France,  and  the  "General  Wall"  was  captured  by  a 
French  privateer  which  put  a  lieutenant  and  prize 
crew  aboard.  Schuyler's  knowledge  of  French  now 
stood  him  in  good  stead,  and  he  had  become  on 
friendly  terms  with  his  captor,  when,  as  the  privateer 
and  prize  were  approaching  a  French  port,  they  were 
both  taken  by  an  English  frigate.  Thus  Schuyler 
reached  London  in  safety  with  his  papers. 

This  visit  to  England  could  not  fail  to  be  inspiring 
to  a  young  man  of  so  progressive  a  nature.  The 

66 


affairs  of  Colonel  Bradstreet  were  settled  permanently 
with  the  War  Office,  and  his  agent  was  complimented 
on  their  businesslike  presentation.  This  done,  Schuy- 
ler  turned  his  attention  to  a  study  of  various  products 
which  the  colonies  habitually  imported  from  England 
and  which  he  hoped  could  be  produced  as  well  at 
home.  Among  these  were  hemp  and  flax,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  which  was  soon  going  on  at  Saratoga.  The 
subject  of  canals  interested  him  deeply  and  then  began 
his  lifelong  belief  in  their  importance  to  America.  In 
the  pursuit  of  these  practical  investigations  he  estab- 
lished friendly  relations  with  several  scientific  English- 
men with  whom  he  afterwards  corresponded  and  who 
caused  his  election  as  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Arts 
in  London. 

The  voyage  home  was  uneventful,  but  as  the  little 
sloop  which  took  him  up  the  Hudson  arrived  opposite 
Albany,  his  eye  met  an  unfamiliar  and  very  pleasing 
sight.  A  new  house  had  been  in  contemplation,  and 
during  Schuyler's  absence  in  Europe,  a  number  of 
carpenters  attracted  to  Albany  by  the  war  were  left 
idle.  Bradstreet  advised  Mrs.  Schuyler  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  rare  opportunity  afforded  by  this  abund- 
ance of  skilled  labor.  The  result  was  the  large  house 
in  the  English  colonial  style  which  Schuyler  observed 
on  the  side  of  the  hill  about  half  a  mile  south  of 
Albany,  a  landmark  for  many  years  until  the  town 
grew  up  around  it,  a  hospitable  home  for  which  trav- 
ellers looked  as  they  ascended  the  river,  which  still 

67 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

stands  in  perfect  preservation  as  a  testimony  to  the 
architectural  taste  and  the  thorough  workmanship  of 
the  time.  The  principal  guest  chamber  was  on  the 
second  story  on  the  left  hand  side;  there  slept  Lafay- 
ette and  Lauzun,  and  Burgoyne  after  his  surrender. 
The  pleasure  often  given  by  the  hospitality  of  this 
house,  in  those  days  of  hard  and  difficult  travelling,  is 
well  shown  by  an  extract  from  the  journal  of  the  Mar- 
quis de  Chastellux,  written  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion: "It  was  a  difficult  question  to  know  where  I 
should  cross  the  Hudson  River  the  next  day,  for  I  was 
told  it  was  neither  sufficiently  frozen  to  pass  over  on 
the  ice,  nor  free  enough  from  flakes  to  venture  it  in  a 
boat.  ...  I  was  only  twenty  miles  from  Al- 
bany; so  that  after  a  continued  journey  through  a 
forest  of  fir  trees,  I  arrived  at  one  o'clock  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson.  ...  A  handsome  house  half 
way  up  the  bank  opposite  the  ferry  seemed  to  attract 
attention  and  to  invite  strangers  to  stop  at  General 
Schuyler's,  who  is  the  proprietor  as  well  as  architect. 
I  had  recommendations  to  him  from  all  quarters,  but 
particularly  from  General  Washington  and  Mrs.  Car- 
ter. Besides,  I  had  given  the  rendezvous  there  to 
Colonel  Hamilton,  who  had  just  married  another  of 
his  daughters,  and  was  preceded  by  the  Vicomte  de 
Noailles  and  the  Comte  de  Damas,  who  I  knew  were 
arrived  the  night  before.  The  sole  difficulty  therefore 
consisted  in  passing  the  river.  While  the  boat  was 
making  its  way  with  difficulty  through  the  flakes  of 

68 


1 


I 
1 


A  VISIT   TO   ENGLAND 

ice,  which  we  were  obliged  to  break  as  we  advanced, 
Mr.  Lynch,  who  is  not  indifferent  about  a  good  din- 
ner, contemplated  General  Schuyler's  house  and 
mournfully  said  to  me :  'I  am  sure  the  Vicomte  and 
Damas  are  now  at  table,  where  they  have  good  cheer 
and  good  company,  while  we  are  here  kicking  our 
heels,  in  hopes  of  getting  this  evening  to  some 
wretched  ale-house.'  I  partook  a  little  of  his  anx- 
iety, but  diverted  myself  by  assuring  him  that  they 
saw  us  from  the  windows,  that  I  even  distinguished 
the  Vicomte  de  Noailles  who  was  looking  at  us 
through  a  telescope,  and  that  he  was  going  to  send 
somebody  to  conduct  us  on  our  landing  to  that  excel- 
lent house,  where  we  should  find  dinner  ready  to  come 
on  table;  I  even  pretended  that  a  sledge  I  had  seen 
descending  towards  the  river  was  designed  for  us. 
As  chance  would  have  it,  never  was  conjecture  more 
just.  The  first  person  we  saw  on  shore  was  the 
Chevalier  de  Manduit,  who  was  waiting  for  us  with 
the  General's  sledge,  into  which  we  quickly  stepped 
and  were  conveyed  in  an  instant  into  a  handsome  draw- 
ing-room, near  a  good  fire,  with  Mr.  Schuyler,  his 
wife  and  daughters.  While  we  were  warming  our- 
selves, dinner  was  served,  to  which  every  one  did 
honor,  as  well  as  to  the  madeira,  which  was  excellent, 
and  made  us  completely  forget  the  rigour  of  the  sea- 
son and  the  fatigue  of  the  journey." 

The  beneficial  effects  of  the  conquest  of  Canada 
upon  the  prospects  of  the  province  of  New  York  were 

69 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

immediately  realized.  The  ever  threatening  war 
clouds  in  the  north  were  replaced  by  a  clear  sky.  In 
the  west  the  Indian  Confederacy  now  stood  alone,  no 
longer  holding  a  dangerous  balance  of  power,  no 
longer  the  object  of  an  incessant  diplomacy.  Face  to 
face  with  a  superior  race  of  men,  their  fate  was  al- 
ready sealed.  Then  began  the  westward  movement  of 
emigration  which,  taking  on  a  tremendous  impetus 
after  the  Revolution,  never  ceased  to  send  its  armies 
to  the  conquest  of  nature  and  savagery. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  new  sense  of  possible 
prosperity  and  expansion,  of  enterprise  and  specula- 
tion, that  Schuyler  returned  from  England,  and  he 
threw  himself  with  enthusiasm  into  the  work.  From 
a  utilitarian  point  of  view,  no  man  knew  better  the 
physical  geography  of  the  province.  Already  the 
Mohawk  Valley  was  familiar  to  him,  and  the  lands  to 
the  westward  as  far  as  Oswego  had  been  often  tra- 
versed. To  the  north,  his  experience  in  the  French 
War  had  made  known  to  him  the  character  of  the 
country  about  Lakes  George  andChamplain.  Through 
his  mother,  he  inherited  about  nine  thousand  acres  in 
the  manor  of  Cortlandt.  His  wife  has  a  share  of 
Claverack.  He  had  interests  in  the  Van  Rensselaer 
property  in  Columbia  County,  and  made  purchases  in 
addition  to  some  inheritance  in  Dutchess  County. 
Schuyler  was  at  home  in  the  forest  and  familiar  with 
its  signs.  The  soil  where  flourished  the  sugar  maple 
and  the  chestnut,  was  chosen  in  preference  to  that 

70 


HOME  AND  BUSINESS  LIFE 

where  the  birch  reared  its  white  shafts  among  the 
hemlocks  and  the  pines.  The  clear  spring  and  running 
stream  had  their  element  of  value,  and  he  recognized 
the  dormant  wealth  in  the  waterfall's  store  of  power. 
His  judgment  in  matters  of  land  and  colonization  soon 
became  considered  the  best  in  the  province  and  was 
sought  by  the  governors,  Sir  Henry  Moore  and 
Tryon,  and  by  such  men  as  William  Smith,  Jr.,  Philip 
Livingston,  James  Duane.  In  sales  and  leases  in  the 
Hudson  River  manors  his  advice  was  constantly  asked. 
His  knowledge  of  the  Indian  character,  of  previous 
cessions  of  territory,  of  the  tribal  rights  in  the  land, 
was  continually  called  into  requisition  in  new  purchases 
and  conflicting  claims. 

In  the  summer  of  1766,  Sir  Henry  Moore  left  his 
wife  and  daughters  with  Mrs.  Schuyler  in  Albany, 
while  he  and  Schuyler  journeyed  together  up  the  Mo- 
hawk Valley  and  purchased  large  tracts  from  the 
Indians  for  Sir  Henry  himself  and  for  his  friend, 
Lord  Holland,  the  father  of  Charles  James  Fox.  A 
long  standing  controversy  over  their  boundaries  be- 
tween John  Van  Rensselaer  of  Claverack  and  the 
second  proprietor  of  the  Livingston  manor  had  caused 
a  painful  estrangement  between  their  families.  The 
genial  William  Smith,  Jr.,  had  met  the  two  hostile 
old  men  one  day  in  New  York  as  they  chanced  to  pass 
each  other  opposite  his  office.  He  had  invited  them  in 
together,  had  induced  them  to  talk  over  their  dispute 
and,  as  he  hoped,  had  brought  about  an  understanding 

71 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

between  them.  But  a  return  to  their  homes  on  the 
Hudson  River  seemed  to  bring  about  a  return  to  the 
old  animosity.  It  was  Philip  Schuyler,  in  whose  judg- 
ment on  such  subjects  both  the  old  men  had  entire 
confidence,  who  finally  settled  the  boundary  and 
brought  about  a  reconciliation. 

Schuyler's  most  valuable  property,  which  he  de- 
veloped with  the  utmost  industry  and  intelligence,  was 
the  Saratoga  patent.  No  longer  in  danger  of  mid- 
night attack  and  conflagration,  this  estate  grew  in 
beauty  and  productiveness  from  year  to  year.  A  saw- 
mill, erected  under  his  supervision,  and  managed  by 
men  of  his  own  training,  converted  the  forest  trees 
into  boards  and  shingles.  The  woods  were  succeeded 
by  fields  of  grain.  A  schooner  and  two  sloops  built 
by  Schuyler  carried  the  lumber  and  agricultural  pro- 
duce to  market  at  New  York,  whence  they  returned 
laden  with  manufactured  articles  for  use  and  for  sale. 
In  those  days  when  the  subdivision  of  labor  was  yet 
impossible,  Schuyler  was  at  once  boat  builder,  farmer, 
lumber  and  grain  merchant,  military  agent  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  real  estate  expert.  At  Saratoga  were 
tried  novel  experiments  in  agriculture,  notably  the 
cultivation  of  flax  and  hemp.  In  1767,  a  large  house 
was  built  there,  on  the  bank  of  Fish  Creek,  and  this 
became  the  summer  home  of  the  family.  The  point 
of  prosperity  and  productiveness  to  which  Schuyler 
brought  the  estate  is  indicated  in  a  letter  written  in 
I775>  by  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith,  chaplain  of  a 

72 


THE    FARM    AT    SARATOGA 

Connecticut  regiment,  to  his  wife:  "I  have  been  ab- 
sent from  ye  camp  for  eleven  days,  Gen'l  Schuyler 
having  wished  me  (as  possessing  some  little  skill  in 
surgery)  to  accompany  his  wife's  relative,  young  V. 
R.,  who  was  grievously  wounded  a  short  while  ago. 
We  had  a  very  hard  journey  through  ye  wilderness 
carrying  ye  poor  boy  on  a  litter,  but  after  four  days 
we  arrived  safely  at  Schuyler's  Town,  where  is  ye 
Gen'l's  country  seat,  and  where  Madam  Schuyler,  who 
is  hospitable  and  handsome  (but  not  so  courtly  in  her 
ways  as  some  one  I  know) ,  entertained  us  finely.  Leav- 
ing our  charge  with  her  and  remaining  only  over 
twenty-four  hours,  to  give  our  horses  rest,  we  returned 
to  ye  fort.  I  was  greatly  interested  to  see  ye  settle- 
ment at  which  ye  Gen'l  S.  has  laboured  for  several 
years.  Herein  he  has  sought  to  manufacture  and  to 
teach  ye  manufacture  of  those  things  which  ye  colonies 
most  need.  Here  he  has  erected  saw-mills  and 
smithies  and  buildings  wherein  wool  and  flax  may  be 
spun  and  wove  in  large  quantities,  and  near  by  are 
great  fields  where  men  and  women  were  cultivating 
flax." 

During  the  years  which  preceded  the  Revolution, 
Schuyler  was  employed  in  various  public  affairs,  of 
which  the  principal  was  the  great  quarrel  between 
New  York  and  New  England  regarding  their  bound- 
aries. This  conflict  did  much  to  embitter  the  existing 
intercolonial  prejudices;  it  was  a  serious  obstacle  to 

73 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

union  in  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution;  and  Schuy- 
ler's  official  connection  with  it  necessarily  involved  an 
unpopularity  with  New  England  men  which  had  un- 
pleasant consequences. 

The  old  claim  of  New  Netherland  to  all  the  land 
west  of  the  Connecticut  River  was  reluctantly  aban- 
doned by  Stuyvesant,  and  in  his  time  a  commission 
fixed  the  boundary  line  at  twenty  miles  to  the  east  of 
the  Hudson.  This  arrangement  settled  the  matter  as 
far  as  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  were  concerned. 
But  New  Hampshire  did  not  yet  exist  as  a  separate 
colony.  Consequently  New  York  claimed  that  the 
twenty  mile  line  stopped  at  Massachusetts  and  that 
all  the  country  north  of  that  colony  and  west  of  the 
line  of  the  Connecticut  River  belonged  to  her.  New 
Hampshire  denied  this,  asserted  that  the  twenty  mile 
line  ran  northward  indefinitely  and  gave  her  possession 
of  what  is  now  Vermont.  Governor  Wentworth  issued 
patents  to  settlers  in  the  disputed  territory  which  thus 
became  known  as  the  Hampshire  Grants.  After  the 
French  War,  when  the  danger  of  invasion  was  re- 
moved, settlers  arrived  in  the  Grants  in  considerable 
numbers,  receiving  their  patents  from  Governor 
Wentworth,  and  the  town  of  Bennington  was  founded. 
Governor  Colden  of  New  York  protested;  the  matter 
was  laid  before  the  King,  who,  in  1764,  gave  judg- 
ment for  New  York.  Wentworth  accepted  the  result 
and  the  settlers  would  have  done  the  same;  but  un- 
fortunately the  governor  of  New  York  claimed  that 

74 


THE   HAMPSHIRE    GRANTS 

not  only  he  had  jurisdiction,  but  that  all  the  patents 
issued  by  Wentworth  were  void.  The  settlers  were 
told  that  they  must  abandon  or  repurchase  their  lands ; 
and  in  default,  these  were  in  many  cases  assigned  to 
New  Yorkers.  This  unjust  and  unwise  proceeding 
provoked  an  armed  rebellion  among  the  people  of  the 
Grants,  in  which  they  were  supported  by  New  Eng- 
land. New  Yorkers  who  tried  to  take  possession  of 
lands  were  resisted  with  bloodshed.  A  state  of  civil 
war  existed  up  to  the  Revolution,  and  the  dispute  was 
never  settled  until  Vermont  was  admitted  to  the  Union 
as  a  State. 

Although  Schuyler  had  little  to  do  with  the  rights 
and  wrongs  of  the  case,  the  responsibility  for  which 
belonged  to  Government  House  in  New  York,  his 
position  as  a  member  of  the  commission  on  the  bound- 
aries, his  authority  as  colonel  of  militia  to  whom  was 
confided  the  preservation  of  order  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  province,  marked  him  as  a  champion  of  the 
cause  of  New  York.  His  name  became  identified  in 
the  Hampshire  Grants  and  to  some  degree  in  New 
England  with  proceedings  rightly  regarded  as  unjust 
and  tyrannical.  The  deeply  rooted  prejudice  of  the 
New  England  men  against  a  Dutchman  was  thus  sup- 
plemented by  animosity  and  suspicion.  As  we  shall 
see,  the  result  was  unfortunate  for  Schuyler  when 
called  to  command  New  England  troops. 

In  1768,  when  thirty-five  years  of  age,  Colonel 

75 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Schuyler  was  elected  a  member  of  the  provincial  as- 
sembly. This  body  was  small  in  numbers,  was  chosen 
by  freeholders  only  and  sat  for  seven  years;  conse- 
quently its  seats  were  the  object  of  a  lively  competi- 
tion. Schuyler  had  been  rather  reluctant  to  take  this 
step.  His  extensive  and  growing  interests  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  province  absorbed  his  attention ; 
the  hospitalities  of  his  houses  at  Albany  and  Saratoga, 
where  judges  and  lawyers  on  circuit,  distinguished 
travellers  and  many  relatives  were  constantly  stopping, 
furnished  him  with  sufficient  society.  But  the  times 
were  troubled  and  a  number  of  influential  men  urged 
him  to  take  an  active  part  in  politics,  not  a  few  of 
whom,  like  Sir  William  Johnson,  were  afterwards  to 
regret  the  presence  of  so  powerful  an  opponent. 

When  Schuyler  took  his  seat  in  the  last  Assembly  of 
the  province  of  New  York,  the  preliminary  skirmish 
between  the  British  Ministry  and  the  colonies  had  been 
fought  and  won.  At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the 
Stamp  Act  in  1765,  the  Colonial  Assembly  had  a  good 
majority  of  the  popular  party  arid  were  able  to  make 
a  strong  stand  against  the  enforcement  of  the  Act.  In 
this  opposition,  the  support  given  by  all  ranks  of  the 
people  was  nearly  unanimous.  The  educated  classes 
saw  plainly  that  the  principle  involved  in  the  Act  was 
contrary  to  their  hereditary  rights  as  Englishmen  and 
they  opposed  it  with  the  reasonable  determination  of 
free  and  intelligent  men.  John  Cruger,  Robt.  R. 
Livingston,  Philip  Livingston,  William  Bayard  and 

76 


THE    STAMP   ACT 

Leonard  Lispenard  represented  the  province  in  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress  which  met  in  New  York  and 
on  behalf  of  nine  colonies  sent  to  England  their  Dec- 
laration of  Rights  and  Petition  to  the  King.  The  mer- 
chants struck  a  telling  blow  at  British  trade  by  ceasing 
their  importations.  The  lower  classes  of  the  people 
were  well  instructed  on  the  issues  by  the  addresses  and 
leadership  of  Alexander  Macdougall,  William  Liv- 
ingston and  John  Morin  Scott.  The  resolution  not  to 
receive  the  stamps  was  so  strong,  the  riotous  demon- 
strations of  the  patriot  organization  called  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  were  so  threatening,  that  neither  Governor 
Moore  nor  General  Gage  dared  to  take  any  decisive 
steps.  Not  knowing  what  to  do  with  the  packages  of 
stamps,  the  presence  of  which  in  any  building  invited 
the  torch,  the  governor  ordered  them  placed  on  board 
the  British  ship  "Coventry,"  then  lying  in  the  harbor. 
But  Archibald  Kennedy,  its  commander,  who  had  mar- 
ried Miss  Watts  and  through  her  owned  a  beautiful 
house  on  Broadway  opposite  the  Bowling  Green  and 
much  other  property  in  the  city,  had  too  much  regard 
for  his  own  interests  to  take  the  risk  of  receiving  them. 
Reasonable  resistance  and  popular  force  defeated  the 
Stamp  Act.  The  ministry  despised  the  former  and  re- 
solved to  crush  the  latter. 

During  this  struggle  the  province  of  New  York 
hardly  abated  its  loyalty  to  the  King  or  its  desire  for 
continued  union  with  the  mother  country.  The 
quarrel  had  been  with  the  ministry,  and  that  over,  the 

77 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

people  were  glad  to  forgive  and  forget.  However, 
there  were  some  men  who  saw  deeply  into  the  signifi- 
cance of  what  had  passed,  who  anticipated  a  renewal 
of  the  struggle  and  began  to  speak  of  independence. 
Among  these  was  the  bold  and  eloquent  lawyer,  John 
Morin  Scott,  whose  addresses  had  instructed  and 
aroused  the  meetings  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty.  His 
shrewd  political  insight  deduced  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  present  the  facts  of  ten  years  later.  "If 
the  interest  of  the  mother  country  and  her  colonies," 
he  said  in  1765,  "cannot  be  made  to  coincide,  if  the 
same  constitution  cannot  take  place  in  both,  if  the  wel- 
fare of  the  mother  country  necessarily  requires  a  sacri- 
fice of  the  most  valuable  natural  rights  of  the  colonies, 
— their  right  of  making  their  own  laws  and  disposing 
of  their  own  property  by  representatives  of  their  own 
choosing,  then  the  connection  between  them  ought  to 
cease,  and  sooner  or  later  it  must  inevitably  cease.  The 
English  government  cannot  long  act  toward  a  part  of 
its  dominions  upon  principles  diametrically  opposed  to 
its  own  without  losing  itself  in  the  slavery  it  would 
impose  upon  the  colonies,  or  teaching  them  to  throw 
it  off  and  assert  its  freedom." 

The  next  step  of  the  British  Ministry  was  to  place 
a  military  force  in  New  York  sufficiently  strong  to  in- 
sure the  success  of  their  new  projects  of  taxation.  The 
appearance  of  the  soldiery  aroused  the  old  animosities 
and  renewed  the  conflicts  between  them  and  the  Sons 

78 


THE    BEGINNING   OE   REVOLUTION 

of  Liberty.  The  Assembly  which  had  successfully  op- 
posed the  Stamp  Act  was  now  instructed  by  Governor 
Moore  to  vote  the  money  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
military  force  which  had  been  sent  to  crush  the  liber- 
ties of  its  constituents.  Its  persistent  refusal  was  fol- 
lowed by  prorogation.  This  new  evidence  of  in- 
tended tyranny  drew  prophetic  words  from  the  pen  of 
William  Livingston,  which  voiced  the  sense  of  power 
and  self-reliance  in  the  colonies  which  had  been  grow- 
ing steadily  since  the  French  War.  "Courage,  Amer- 
icans!" he  wrote  in  1767,  "Liberty,  religion  and 
science  are  on  the  wing  to  these  shores.  The  finger  of 
God  points  out  a  mighty  empire  to  your  sons.  The 
savages  of  the  wilderness  were  never  expelled  to  make 
room  for  idolaters  and  slaves.  The  land  we  possess 
is  the  gift  of  heaven  to  our  fathers,  and  divine  provi- 
dence seems  to  have  decreed  it  to  our  latest  posterity. 
The  day  dawns  in  which  the  foundation  of  this  mighty 
empire  is  to  be  laid,  by  the  establishment  of  a  regular 
American  Constitution.  All  that  has  been  done  hith- 
erto seems  to  be  little  beside  the  collection  of  materials 
for  this  glorious  fabric.  'Tis  time  to  put  them  to- 
gether. The  transfer  of  the  European  family  is  so 
vast,  and  our  growth  so  swift,  that  before  seven  years 
roll  over  our  heads  the  first  stone  must  be  laid." 

While  such  clear-sighted  patriots  as  Scott  and  Wil- 
liam Livingston  could  look  clearly  into  the  future,  the 
people  in  general  mistook  a  truce  for  a  peace.  Sir 

79 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Henry  Moore's  conciliatory  attitude  induced  a  re- 
action toward  loyalty,  and  when  Schuyler  took  his  seat 
in  the  Assembly  in  1768,  he  found  the  Royalist  party, 
led  by  the  de  Lanceys,  in  control.  In  this  assembly, 
New  York  was  represented  by  James  de  Lancey, 
Philip  Livingston,  Jacob  Walton,  James  Jauncey, 
Isaac  Low,  John  Cruger,  and  John  Alsop.  From 
Westchester,  came  Frederick  Philipse;  from  the 
borough  of  Westchester,  John  de  Lancey;  from  Ul- 
ster county,  George  Clinton.  Schuyler's  old  friend 
"  Brom,"  Abraham  Ten  Broeck,  represented  the 
manor  of  Rensselaerwyck ;  Peter  R.  Livingston,  that 
of  Livingston,  and  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  that  of 
Cortlandt.  Schuyler  and  Clinton  were  new  members, 
both  destined  to  long  and  distinguished  careers.  Now, 
and  throughout  the  Revolution,  we  see  them  working 
in  unison,  for  the  independence  of  their  country;  but 
that  attained,  and  in  the  face  of  new  problems,  they 
will  be  found  in  hostile  camps. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  dissensions  between  the 
mother  country  and  the  colonies,  Schuyler  had  ranged 
himself  distinctly  on  the  American  side.  He  was  pres- 
ent at  the  great  dinner  in  New  York  given  to  cele- 
brate the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  he  accom- 
panied the  Sons  of  Liberty  to  Trinity  Church  to  hear 
the  congratulatory  address  delivered  by  Dr.  Auch- 
muty.  From  1768  to  1774,  the  records  of  the  Assem- 
bly show  him  to  have  been  active  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  industrial  and  commercial  welfare  of  the 

80 


THE    BEGINNING   OF    REVOLUTION 

colony,  taking  frequent  part  in  debate,  and  asserting 
the  rights  of  the  province  in  the  fitful  but  never-ending 
quarrel  with  the  ministry  in  England.  Of  the  pa- 
triotic resolutions  introduced  into  the  Assembly,  some 
of  the  boldest  were  drafted  by  him,  and  it  was  at  his 
suggestion  that  Edmund  Burke  was  appointed  the 
agent  of  New  York  in  England. 

The  frequent  conflicts  between  the  soldiery  and  the 
people,  the  imprisonment  of  Alexander  Macdougall, 
kept  alive  the  fires  of  discord  which  were  to  burst  into 
flame  with  the  tax  on  tea  in  1774.  The  impatience  of 
the  colonists  under  the  tyrannical  assumptions  of  the 
English  Ministry,  and  at  the  same  time  their  senti- 
ment of  conscious  strength,  are  curiously  exemplified 
in  the  following  anecdote.  Robert  Livingston,  the 
second  son  of  the  founder  of  the  manor,  was  then  a 
hale  old  man  of  eighty-five  years  of  age,  still  wearing 
the  wig,  knee  breeches,  and  large-skirted  coat  of  a 
previous  generation.  He  was  conversing  one  day  in 
the  year  1773,  in  the  library  at  Clermont,  with  his  son, 
Judge  Robert  R.,  his  grandson,  Robert  R.,  the  future 
Chancellor,  and  Richard  Montgomery,  when  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  It  is  intolerable  that  a  continent  like 
America  should  be  governed  by  a  little  island,  three 
thousand  miles  away.  America  must  and  will  be 
independent.  My  son,  you  will  not  live  to  see  it; 
Montgomery,  you  may;  Robert,"  addressing  his 
grandson,  "  you  will."  Judge  Livingston  died  soon 
after,  and  it  was  on  the  eve  of  the  Declaration  of 

81 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

Independence  that  Montgomery  fell  gloriously  at 
Quebec.  The  prophecy  was  fulfilled  when  the  young 
Robert  served  with  Jefferson,  Franklin,  Sherman,  and 
Adams  on  the  committee  appointed  by  the  continental 
congress  to  draft  the  Declaration. 

On  the  great  questions  of  the  time,  public  opinion 
in  New  York  divided  the  people  into  three  parties. 
There  were  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  representing  the 
loudest,  if  not  the  sincerest  patriotism,  advocating  ex- 
treme measures,  under  the  leadership  of  Scott,  Mac- 
dougall,  Sears,  and  Lamb.  They  prevented  by  force 
the  landing  of  the  tea ;  and  it  was  at  their  great  meet- 
ing in  "  The  Fields,"  where  Alexander  Hamilton 
made  his  maiden  speech.  At  the  other  extreme  were 
the  Tories,  disposed  to  submit  to  any  measures  which 
seemed  good  to  the  ministry  of  Great  Britain.  Be- 
tween these  two  stood  a  party  considerable  in  wealth 
and  influence,  led  by  substantial  merchants  and  able 
lawyers,  having  more  at  stake  and  being  more  con- 
servative than  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  while  excelling  the 
Tories  in  attachment  to  their  adopted  country  and  in 
independence  of  character.  This  party,  soon  to  be- 
come the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  Revolution,  remained, 
up  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  sincerely  desir- 
ous of  a  reconciliation  with  Great  Britain,  but  deter- 
mined not  to  accept  it  at  the  expense  of  legitimate 
rights. 

The  New  York  assembly,  containing  a  majority 

82 


IN    THE    PROVINCIAL   ASSEMBLY 

of  Tories,  became  less  and  less  representative  as  mat- 
ters advanced.  The  vote  of  thanks  to  the  merchants 
for  their  non-importation  agreement,  the  motion  to 
appoint  delegates  to  the  continental  congress,  every 
patriotic  movement,  was  defeated  by  the  same  major- 
ity, while  in  the  minority  were  always  recorded  the 
names  of  Schuyler,  Van  Cortlandt,  Clinton,  Ten 
Broeck,  and  Livingston. 

In  the  spring  of  1774,  Governor  Tryon  departed 
for  England  to  give  personal  information  to  the 
ministry  of  the  situation  in  the  colonies.  During  his 
absence,  the  executive  office  was  held  by  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Cadwallader  Colden,  "  Old  Caddy,"  as 
William  Smith  called  him,  a  strong  Tory.  Colden 
kept  Tryon  informed  of  events  in  New  York.  "  Colo- 
nel Schuyler  and  Clinton  hold  forth  in  the  opposition," 
he  wrote  in  February,  1775.  A  little  later  he  mentions 
de  Lancey  and  Wilkins  as  the  strong  men  on  the 
Royalist  side,  but  Wilkins,  he  thought,  was  the  only 
one  who  could  hold  his  own  in  debate  with  Schuyler 
and  Clinton.  In  April,  he  writes :  "  Our  Assembly 
have  pursued  a  plan  of  conduct  which  I  hope  will  be 
satisfactory  to  his  Majesty  and  his  ministers.  They 
have  sent  a  petition  to  the  King,  a  memorial  to  the 
Lords,  and  a  remonstrance  to  the  Commons,  all  ex- 
pressed, especially  the  petition  to  the  King,  in  a  very 
moderate,  decent  style.  I  am  persuaded  that  it  will 
give  you  some  concern,  sir,  to  hear  that  Colonel  Schuy- 
ler, Ten  Broeck,  and  Livingston  made  a  violent  oppo- 

83 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

sition  in  the  House  to  these  measures,  and  have  made 
it  evident  throughout  the  sessions  that  they  wished  to 
bring  this  colony  into  all  the  dangerous  and  extrava- 
gant schemes  which  disgrace  too  many  of  the  sister 
colonies.  They  openly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  last 
congress,  and  strove  hard  to  have  delegates  ap- 
pointed by  the  House  for  that  which  is  to  be  held  in 
May.  They  are  now  gone  home  to  get  that  done  by 
the  election  of  the  people  which  they  could  not  effect 
in  the  House." 

In  1774,  New  York  was  represented  in  the  conti- 
nental congress  by  Philip  Livingston,  John  Alsop, 
Isaac  Low,  James  Duane,  and  John  Jay,  who  had 
been  chosen  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty-one.  In  1775 
a  provincial  convention  was  held  to  choose  delegates 
who  added  to  the  previous  list,  George  Clinton, 
Francis  Lewis,  Lewis  Morris,  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
and  Philip  Schuyler. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday,  April  24th,  Schuyler 
left  New  York  in  one  of  his  sloops  for  Albany.  The 
same  afternoon,  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington 
reached  New  York.  A  sloop  was  despatched  at  once 
to  convey  the  intelligence  to  Albany,  but  it  was  four 
days  on  its  journey,  and  it  was  not  until  Saturday  that 
Schuyler  received  it  at  his  country  seat  at  Saratoga. 
That  evening,  he  wrote  to  John  Cruger,  who  was 
preparing  for  a  voyage  to  England  on  account  of  ill- 
health,  a  letter  which  well  expressed  the  sentiments 

84 


SCHUYLER'S   VIEW   OF   THE    CRISIS 

with  which  he  viewed  this  great  crisis  in  his  country's 
history : 

"  Of  course,  long  ere  this  you  have  received  the 
news  from  Boston.  My  heart  bleeds  as  I  view  the 
horrors  of  civil  war,  but  we  have  only  left  us  the 
choice  between  such  evils  and  slavery.  For  myself,  I 
can  say  with  Sempronius : 

'  Heavens  !  can  a  Roman  Senate  long  debate 
Which  of  the  two  to  choose,  slavery  or  death  ! 
No  ;  let  us  arise  at  once,'  etc. 

for  we  should  be  unworthy  of  our  ancestors  if  we 
should  tamely  submit  to  an  insolent  and  wicked  min- 
istry, and  supinely  wait  for  a  gracious  answer  to  a 
petition  to  the  King,  of  which,  as  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  who  sent  it,  I  am  ashamed.  I  know  there 
are  difficulties  in  the  way.  The  loyal  and  the  timid 
in  this  province  are  many,  yet  I  believe  that  when  the 
question  is  fairly  put,  as  it  is  really  so  put  by  this 
massacre  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  whether  we  shall  be 
ruled  by  a  military  despotism,  or  fight  for  right  and 
freedom,  the  great  majority  of  the  people  will  choose 
the  latter.  For  my  own  part,  much  as  I  love  peace — 
much  as  I  love  my  own  domestic  happiness  and  re- 
pose, and  desire  to  see  my  countrymen  enjoying  the 
blessings  flowing  from  undisturbed  industry,  I  would 
rather  see  all  these  scattered  to  the  winds  for  a  time, 
and  the  sword  of  desolation  go  over  the  land,  than  to 
recede  one  line  from  the  just  and  righteous  position 
we  have  taken  as  free-born  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 

85 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

I  beg  you,  my  dear  sir,  if  your  health  shall  permit 
when  you  arrive  in  England,  to  use  all  your  influence 
there  to  convince  the  people  and  the  rulers  that  we 
were  never  more  determined  to  contend  for  our  rights 
than  at  this  moment — that  we  consider  ourselves  not 
aggressors,  but  defenders — and  that  he  who  believes 
that  our  late  Assembly  truly  represented  the  feelings 
and  wishes  of  our  people  is  greatly  deceived.  I  have 
watched  the  course  of  the  political  currents  for  many 
months  with  great  anxiety,  and  have  been,  for  more 
than  a  year,  fully  convinced  that  unless  Great  Britain 
should  be  more  just  and  wise  than  in  times  past,  war 
was  inevitable.  It  is  now  actually  begun;  and  in  the 
spirit  of  Joshua  I  say,  I  care  not  what  others  may  do, 
1  as  for  me  and  my  house,'  we  will  serve  our  coun- 
try." 

The  next  day  Schuyler  attended  church  in  Albany, 
where  the  news  from  New  England  absorbed  all  at- 
tention. "  I  well  remember,"  records  an  eye-witness, 
"  the  impressive  manner  with  which,  in  my  hearing, 
my  father  told  my  uncle  that  blood  had  been  shed  in 
Lexington!  The  startling  intelligence  spread  like 
wildfire  among  the  congregation.  The  preacher's 
voice  was  listened  to  with  very  little  attention.  After 
the  morning  discourse  was  finished  and  the  people 
were  dismissed,  we  gathered  about  Philip  Schuyler 
for  further  information.  He  was  the  oracle  of  our 
neighborhood.  We  looked  up  to  him  with  a  feeling 

86 


ATTITUDE    OF   NEW   YORK 

of  respect  and  affection.  His  popularity  was  un- 
bounded; his  views  upon  all  subjects  were  considered 
sound,  and  his  anticipations  almost  prophetic.  On 
this  occasion  he  confirmed  the  intelligence  already  re- 
ceived and  expressed  his  belief  that  an  important  crisis 
had  arrived  which  must  forever  separate  us  from  the 
parent  state." 

In  April,  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  was  organ- 
ized the  Provincial  Congress,  which  superseded  the 
old  Royal  Assembly  and  formed  the  new  government 
of  New  York.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  con- 
servative nature  of  this  Assembly,  and,  in  the  midst 
of  a  revolution,  its  wise  dread  of  the  consequences  of 
revolution.  These  men  were  no  lovers  of  change;  if 
they  rebelled,  it  was  against  their  will.  As  late  as  the 
end  of  June,  1775,  they  wrote  to  the  New  York 
representatives  in  the  continental  congress  at  Phila- 
delphia : 

"  Deeply  impressed  with  the  importance,  the  utility 
and  necessity  of  an  accommodation  with  our  parent 
state,  and  conscious  that  the  best  service  that  we  can 
render  to  the  present  and  all  future  generations  must 
consist  in  promoting  it;  we  have  laboured  without 
intermission  to  point  out  such  moderate  terms  as  may 
tend  to  reconcile  the  unhappy  differences  which 
threaten  the  whole  empire  with  destruction.  .  .  . 
We  must  now  repeat  to  you  the  common  and  just  ob- 
servation that  contests  for  liberty,  fostered  in  their 
infancy  by  the  virtuous  and  wise,  become  sources  of 

87 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

power  to  wicked  and  designing  men.  Whence  it  fol- 
lows that  such  controversies  as  we  are  now  engaged  in 
frequently  end  in  the  demolition  of  those  rights  and 
privileges  which  they  are  instituted  to  defend.  We 
pray  you,  therefore,  to  use  every  effort  for  the  com- 
promising of  this  unnatural  quarrel  between  the 
parent  and  child;  and  if  such  terms  as  you  think  best 
shall  not  be  complied  with,  earnestly  to  labour  that 
at  least  some  terms  may  be  held  up,  whereby  a  treaty 
shall  be  set  on  foot  to  restore  peace  and  harmony  to 
our  country  and  spare  the  further  effusion  of  human 
blood.  So  that,  if  even  at  the  last  our  well-meant  en- 
deavors shall  fail  of  effect,  we  may  stand  fair  and 
unreproachable  by  our  own  consciences,  in  the  last  sol- 
emn appeal  to  the  God  of  Battles." 

The  last  solemn  appeal  was  soon  forced  upon  them ; 
and  the  provincial  assembly  of  New  York  was  re- 
quested by  the  continental  congress  to  name  one  of  the 
major-generals  and  one  of  the  brigadier-generals  who 
should  lead  the  forces  of  the  new  nation  in  its  com- 
ing struggle.  It  was  in  the  following  letter  that  the 
assembly  unanimously  recommended  Philip  Schuyler 
to  be  major-general,  and  Richard  Montgomery  to  be 
brigadier-general. 

"  We  take  the  liberty  for  the  present  to  furnish  you 
with  our  sentiments  on  the  appointment  of  a  major- 
and  a  brigadier-general  and  submit  them  to  your  su- 
perior wisdom  either  for  use  or  concealment.  .  .  . 


APPOINTED    MAJOR-GENERAL 

Courage,  prudence,  readiness  in  expedients,  nice  per- 
ception, sound  judgment,  and  great  attention — these 
are  a  few  of  the  natural  qualities  which  appear  to  us 
to  be  proper.  To  these  ought  to  be  added  an  exten- 
sive acquaintance  with  the  sciences,  particularly  the 
various  branches  of  mathematic  knowledge;  long 
practice  in  the  military  art,  and  above  all  a  knowl- 
edge of  mankind.  On  a  general  in  America,  fortune 
also  should  bestow  her  gifts,  that  he  may  rather  com- 
municate lustre  to  his  dignities  than  receive  it;  and 
that  his  country,  in  his  property,  his  kindred  and  con- 
nections may  have  sure  pledges  that  he  will  faithfully 
perform  the  duties  of  his  high  office  and  readily  lay 
down  his  power  when  the  general  weal  requires  it. 
Since  we  cannot  do  all  that  we  wish,  we  will  go  as  far 
towards  it  as  we  can,  and  therefore  you  will  not  be  sur- 
prised to  hear  that  we  are  unanimous  in  the  choice  of 
Colonel  Philip  Schuyler  and  Captain  Richard  Mont- 
gomery to  the  offices  of  major-  and  brigadier-generals. 
If  we  knew  how  to  recommend  them  to  your  notice 
more  strongly  than  by  telling  you,  that  after  consider- 
ing the  qualifications  above  stated,  these  gentlemen 
were  approved  of  without  a  single  dissent,  our  regard 
to  the  public  service  would  certainly  lead  us  to  do  it 
in  the  most  forcible  terms.  Nor  will  we  enter  into 
a  minute  detail  of  the  characters  and  situations  of  two 
gentlemen  with  whom  our  delegates  cannot  but  be 
acquainted.  In  a  word,  we  warmly  recommend  them, 

89 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

because  we  have  no  doubts  that  their  appointment 
will  give  general  satisfaction." 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  colony  should  seek  the 
military  services  of  Richard  Montgomery  and  should 
give  him  a  high  rank  in  its  new  army.  Formerly  a 
captain  in  the  British  service  and  a  man  of  the  highest 
character,  he  did  not  need  his  connection  with  the 
Livingston  family  to  recommend  him  for  a  position 
for  which  no  one  was  better  fitted. 

But  in  the  choice  of  a  major-general,  the  provincial 
assembly  had  a  different  and  more  difficult  problem. 
This  officer  should  have  military  capacity  and  experi- 
ence, but  he  must  be  more  than  a  soldier;  he  must  be 
an  organizer  of  men,  a  provider  of  food  and  arms,  an 
executive  head  of  a  new  and  now  all  important  branch 
of  the  government.  War  existed,  and  generals  were 
appointed;  but  the  army  was  to  be  raised,  clothed, 
armed  and  fed.  Here  was  a  vast  and  trying  business 
necessarily  placed  on  the  shoulders  of  military  leaders 
in  a  country  where  no  ready  machinery  existed  for 
providing  the  ways  and  means.  As  we  look  over  the 
names  of  men  who  then,  and  for  a  decade  afterwards, 
took  the  lead  in  New  York,  we  can  hardly  find  one 
whom  the  Assembly  might  have  considered  in  compe- 
tition with  Schuyler.  George  Clinton  had  as  yet 
neither  military  experience  nor  the  influence  of  family 
and  business  connections.  The  Van  Rensselaer,  Liv- 
ingston and  Van  Cortlandt  families  furnished  good 
officers,  but  none  who  had  seen  service  and  none  who 

90 


APPOINTED    MAJOR-GENERAL 

attained  positions  of  the  first  responsibility.  Men  in 
the  province  of  New  York  who  afterwards  rose  to 
high  and  some  to  the  highest  distinction  in  statesman- 
ship and  diplomacy,  men  like  Robert  R.  and  Philip 
Livingston,  James  Duane,  John  Jay,  and  Gouverneur 
Morris,  were  not  adapted  for  such  an  office  as  major- 
general  in  the  Continental  army. 

Schuyler  was  chosen  at  once  and  unanimously  be- 
cause many  circumstances  pointed  to  him  as  pre- 
eminently fitted.  He  had  an  honorable  military  rec- 
ord, like  Washington  and  Putnam,  in  the  French  and 
Indian  War.  He  had  not  only  seen  fighting,  but  as 
commissary  in  the  English  army,  he  had  learned  the 
business  of  supplying  and  transporting  the  munitions 
of  war  in  a  country  almost  without  roads.  Von 
Moltke  has  said  that  geography  was  a  principal 
element  in  military  art.  This  saying  was  never  more 
true  than  in  its  application  to  our  revolutionary  cam- 
paigns. And  in  the  geography  of  his  native  province 
Schuyler's  knowledge  was  unrivalled.  In  his  fond- 
ness for  solving  mathematical  problems,  in  his  navi- 
gation of  the  "  General  Wall "  across  the  ocean,  in 
the  building  of  his  mills  and  the  development  of  his 
lands,  he  had  shown  that  adaptability  to  circumstances 
and  that  fertility  in  expedients  which  the  Assembly 
had  considered  essential  in  their  general.  The  wealth 
which  he  had  inherited,  and  still  more,  that  which  he 
had  acquired,  his  extensive  influence  and  family  con- 
nections were  recognized  as  additional  recommenda- 

91 


LIFE    OF    GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

tions  in  a  man  whose  public  career  hitherto  had  given 
every  proof  of  enlightened  patriotism.  Such  were  the 
qualifications  which  caused  the  choice  of  Schuyler  as 
the  major-general  appointed  by  New  York.  But 
there  were  circumstances,  not  then  apparent,  which 
were  destined  to  interfere  with  his  success  and  happi- 
ness in  the  work  which  he  undertook  for  his  country. 
The  rheumatic  gout  of  his  youth  was  an  ever  present 
menace  and  would  attack  him  again  when  he  needed 
all  his  strength.  He  was  of  Dutch  descent,  and  a 
man  identified  with  the  New  York  side  of  the  quarrel 
over  the  Hampshire  Grants.  These  latter  circum- 
stances were  sure  to  excite  the  prejudice  and  mistrust 
of  New  England  troops. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Schuyler  in  Command  of  the  Northern  Department. 

— The  Invasion  of  Canada. — The  Johnsons 

and  Tories. 

ON  the  morning  of  June  21,  1775,  George 
Washington,  Philip  Schuyler,  and  Charles 
Lee  rode  out  of  the  streets  of  Philadelphia, 
journeying  northward.  Among  the  many  acts  of  wis- 
dom recorded  of  the  first  Congress  of  the  United 
Colonies,  none  was  destined  to  bear  such  precious 
fruit  as  the  choice  for  commander-in-chief  of  him  in 
whose  keeping  had  been  placed  the  country's  defence. 
As  dispassionately  as  those  men  had  surveyed  the  is- 
sues of  the  conflict,  as  unerringly  as  they  had  defined 
their  just  rights,  so  had  they  chosen  the  man  who, 
above  all,  was  fitted  to  lead  in  action  during  the 
arduous  and  disheartening  years  to  come. 

There  were  interesting  points  of  contrast  between 
the  three  general  officers  now  earnestly  conferring  as 
they  urged  their  horses  along  the  Trenton  road. 
Washington  and  Schuyler  were  both  entering  on  mid- 
dle life;  both  tall,  well-made  men,  impressive  in  as- 
pect. The  first,  an  Englishman  of  Virginia,  coming 
from  his  ancestral  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac; 

93 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

the  second,  a  Dutchman  of  New  York,  whose  stately 
dwelling  looked  down  upon  the  Hudson.  Both  were 
Americans  at  heart  and  in  principle.  Both  represented 
the  best  class  in  their  respective  communities,  and  they 
were  born  in  the  two  colonies  of  all  the  most  aristo- 
cratic in  social  structure.  Both  had  seen  service  in 
the  old  French  and  Indian  War  and  knew  the  difficul- 
ties peculiar  to  fighting  in  a  vast  wooded  and  roadless 
country.  Washington  had  been  with  Braddock  on 
the  disastrous  day  in  the  Virginia  forest;  and  Schuy- 
ler  with  Sir  William  Johnson  in  the  memorable  fight 
at  Lake  George.  The  acquaintance  of  the  two  gen- 
erals dated  from  the  recent  meeting  at  Philadelphia, 
where  they  had  served  together  on  a  military  com- 
mittee. This  journey  ripened  a  friendship  which 
never  suffered  any  interruption.  Washington  ac- 
quired a  regard  for  Schuyler's  ability  and  character 
which  he  never  failed  to  assert.  Schuyler  recognized 
the  nobility  of  soul  and  the  perfect  balance  of  mind 
on  which  rested  the  superiority  of  the  commander-in- 
chief,  and  from  this  time  he  never  ceased  to  look  up 
to  him  as  to  one  to  whom  it  was  an  honor  to  pay  a 
tribute  of  devotion  and  affection. 

While  Washington  and  Schuyler  were  Americans, 
staking  their  lands,  their  homes  and  their  lives  with 
patriotic  self-sacrifice,  Charles  Lee  was  a  selfish  mili- 
tary adventurer,  entering  the  quarrel  for  what  he 
could  make  of  it,  even  now  nourishing  a  jealous  hatred 
of  Washington,  whom  he  considered  to  have  robbed 

94 


THE    NEWS   OF   BUNKER    HILL 

him  of  the  position  of  commander-in-chief.  Mean  in 
spirit  and  slovenly  in  person,  he  presented  the  same 
contrast  to  his  companions  that  his  conduct  in  the 
war  was  to  present  to  theirs.  To  Washington  he  was 
a  recent  acquaintance.  But  Schuyler  could  not  have 
forgotten  some  scenes  in  which  Lee  had  figured  at 
The  Flatts,  seventeen  years  before,  when,  as  a  cap- 
tain in  Abercrombie's  army,  he  had  exhibited  the 
stupid  arrogance  which  formed  the  chief  trait  in  his 
character.  That  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  should 
have  given  high  military  rank  to  Lee,  and  that  Wash- 
ington and  Schuyler  should  have  deferred  at  first  to 
his  supposed  experience,  was  an  illustration  of  the 
respect  yet  supposed  to  be  due  in  the  colonies  to  every- 
thing belonging  to  the  mother  country. 

The  party  had  proceeded  about  twenty  miles  when 
a  courier  was  met  galloping  toward  Philadelphia  with 
despatches  for  Congress  which  contained  the  news  of 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  In  the  excitement  that 
ensued,  Washington's  inquiries  went  immediately  to 
the  main  point:  How  did  the  militia  behave?  Did 
they  hold  their  ground  under  fire?  And  when  he 
heard  the  answer,  he  exclaimed:  "The  liberties  of 
the  country  are  safe."  Then  they  hastened  through 
the  Jerseys,  over  the  ground  that  was  soon  to  be  the 
battlefields  of  Trenton  and  of  Princeton,  past  Nassau 
Hall  to  Newark,  where  General  Montgomery  was 
waiting  to  escort  them  to  New  York. 

On  the  same  day,  the  British  man-of-war  upon 

95 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

which  Governor  Tryon  was  returning  from  England 
was  sighted  in  the  lower  bay.  The  almost  simul- 
taneous arrival  of  the  English  governor  and  of  the 
American  commander-in-chief  was  a  source  of  much 
embarrassment  to  the  authorities  of  New  York,  di- 
vided and  uncertain  as  they  were.  It  was  decided  at 
last  to  pay  equal  honors  to  both  in  the  order  of  their 
arrival. 

Washington  appeared  first,  riding  down  Broadway 
with  Schuyler  and  Montgomery.  The  militia  saluted 
him,  and  Peter  V.  B.  Livingston,  as  President  of  the 
Provincial  Congress,  made  an  address  which  showed 
how  strong  was  the  old  English  dread  of  military 
domination :  "  Confiding  in  you,  sir,  and  in  the 
worthy  generals  immediately  under  your  command, 
we  have  the  most  flattering  hopes  of  success  in  the 
glorious  struggle  for  American  liberty,  and  the  full- 
est assurances  that  whenever  this  important  contest 
shall  be  decided  by  that  fondest  wish  of  every  Ameri- 
can soul,  an  accommodation  with  our  mother  country, 
you  will  cheerfully  resign  the  important  deposit  com- 
mitted into  your  hands,  and  re-assume  the  character 
of  our  worthiest  citizen."  To  which  Washington 
replied :  "  As  to  the  fatal,  but  necessary  operations 
of  war:  When  we  assumed  the  soldier,  we  did  not 
lay  aside  the  citizen;  and  we  shall  most  sincerely  re- 
joice with  you  in  that  happy  hour,  when  the  estab- 
lishment of  American  liberty  on  the  most  firm  and 
solid  foundations,  shall  enable  us  to  return  to  our 

96 


POSITION   OF   NEW   YORK 

private  stations  in  the  bosom  of  a  free,  peaceful,  and 
happy  country." 

In  the  evening,  Governor  Tryon  landed,  receiving 
the  same  honors  from  the  militia  and  city  officials,  but, 
of  course,  no  greeting  from  the  Provincial  Congress. 
A  cheering  crowd  of  loyalists  accompanied  him  to 
Government  House,  and  two  British  men-of-war  rode 
at  anchor  off  the  Battery,  ready  to  obey  his  commands. 
Tryon  had  been  a  popular  official,  and  he  now  sought 
to  avoid  all  unnecessary  friction.  Schuyler,  who  had 
been  on  terms  of  personal  friendship  with  him,  was 
not  obliged,  in  these  changed  conditions,  to  do  more 
than  ignore  his  presence  in  Government  House. 

That  evening  a  conference  took  place  between 
Washington  and  Schuyler,  at  which  the  latter  received 
his  instructions  as  commander  of  the  Revolutionary 
forces  in  the  province  of  New  York.  The  next  morn- 
ing Washington  set  out  on  his  journey  to  Cambridge, 
there  to  take  command  of  the  American  army  and 
to  conduct  the  successful  campaign  which  expelled 
the  British  from  Boston.  Schuyler  accompanied  him 
as  far  as  New  Rochelle  and  then  returned  to  face  the 
new  and  trying  situation  in  which  his  appointment 
placed  him. 

New  York  was  one  of  the  smaller  colonies,  rank- 
ing only  seventh  in  point  of  population.  But  it  was 
strategically  the  most  important  of  all.  It  separated 
New  England  from  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
and  the  Carolinas.  British  control  meant  the  division 

97 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

of  American  forces  and  the  prevention  of  co-opera- 
tion between  the  northern  and  the  southern  provinces. 
Vital  as  was  its  possession  to  the  American  cause, 
there  were  circumstances  which  rendered  its  security 
a  matter  of  great  doubt  and  difficulty.  British  sea- 
power  marked  for  its  own  the  port  of  New  York. 
The  colonies  had  not  a  ship  to  protect  it ;  there  Eng- 
lish fleets  could  enter  and  land  troops  at  will.  In  the 
north  was  Canada,  where  hostile  armies  could  muster 
undisturbed  for  invasion.  To  the  west  lay  the  wilder- 
ness with  its  Six  Nations  of  Indians  under  the  con- 
trol, as  far  as  they  submitted  to  any,  of  Sir  John  and 
Colonel  Guy  Johnson.  The  latter  had  come  out  un- 
reservedly for  the  King,  and  already  disturbances  and 
rumors  of  savage  warfare  were  alarming  the  settle- 
ments west  of  the  Hudson. 

Thus  threatened  from  without,  New  York  was 
subject  more  than  any  other  colony  to  the  internal 
danger  of  British  loyalty  or  lukewarmness  toward  the 
patriot  cause  among  its  own  inhabitants.  Philip 
Schuyler,  Philip  Livingston,  John  Alsop,  James 
Duane,  John  Jay,  Francis  Lewis,  Alexander  Mac- 
dougall,  George  Clinton,  Lewis  Morris,  Philip  Van 
Cortlandt,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Egbert  Benson,  are 
names  now  distinguished  because  their  bearers  risked 
all  and  did  all  for  their  country.  But  there  were  many 
men  of  high  social  advantages  and  ability  who  held 
aloof  and  waited,  or  were  actively  hostile.  The  city 
of  New  York  was  commercial  and  aristocratic.  Both 


SCHUYLER    IN    COMMAND 

of  these  interests  were  averse  to  disturbance  and  re- 
liant upon  friendly  intercourse  with  the  mother  coun- 
try. However  they  might  resent  ministerial  injustice, 
they  dreaded  extreme  measures  which  upset  business, 
disturbed  social  order,  and  would  end  none  could  tell 
where.  In  the  country  districts  were  many  settlers 
to  whom  English  loyalty  was  a  habit,  who  appreciated 
the  possible  hardships  of  a  conflict  much  more  vividly 
than  the  importance  of  the  points  at  issue.  A  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  population,  therefore,  could 
not  be  relied  upon  for  assistance. 

On  the  shoulders  of  Philip  Schuyler  now  rested  the 
responsibility  for  the  military  control  of  the  northern 
portion  of  the  province.  He  was  not  a  soldier  by 
profession.  The  abilities  which  in  peaceful  occupa- 
tions had  raised  him  to  leadership  in  his  community 
must  be  applied  to  new  and  exacting  problems.  The 
Provincial  Congress  was  ready  to  give  him  every  sup- 
port in  its  power,  but  it  looked  to  him  for  informa- 
tion in  military  affairs.  There  was  no  governmental 
machinery  for  raising  an  army,  nor  for  providing  the 
great  and  varied  supplies  without  which  an  army  could 
not  exist.  For  the  present,  Schuyler  must  be  his  own 
quartermaster,  commissary  and  recruiting  officer. 

In  a  few  days  he  had  informed  himself  and 
had  reported  to  the  Provincial  Congress  concern- 
ing the  armed  forces  then  available  and  the  sup- 
plies most  needed.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the 
city  were  General  Wooster's  Connecticut  regiment 

09 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

of  about  five  hundred  men  and  Colonel  David 
Waterbury's  of  about  nine  hundred.  At  Ticon- 
deroga  and  at  different  points  near  Lake  George 
were  about  twelve  hundred  more,  chiefly  from  New 
England.  The  total  was  less  than  three  thousand, 
and  they  were  enlisted  for  such  short  terms  that 
the  army  would  speedily  melt  away  unless  constantly 
recruited.  Among  the  supplies  asked  for  were  natu- 
rally such  obvious  requirements  as  tents,  arms,  pow- 
der, food,  clothing,  and  medicines.  But  as  we  read 
the  long  lists  of  subsidiary  articles  requested  of  the 
Congress  by  Schuyler,  the  tools  for  the  gunsmith, 
blacksmith,  carpenter,  and  boat  builder,  the  rope  and 
oakum  and  nails  for  the  boats  to  be  built,  the  shovels 
and  pickaxes  for  intrenching,  we  see  the  general's 
woodcraft,  his  personal  knowledge  of  what  men  would 
need  while  campaigning  in  forests  and  over  water- 
ways. 

Before  leaving  New  York  for  the  north,  Schuyler 
made  an  address  to  the  troops  through  the  medium 
of  a  letter  to  General  Wooster.  "  America,"  he  said, 
"  has  recourse  to  arms  merely  for  her  safety  and  de- 
fence, and  in  resisting  oppression  she  will  not  oppress. 
She  wages  no  war  of  ambition,  content  if  she  can  only 
retain  the  fair  inheritance  of  English  law  and  English 
liberty.  Such  being  the  purity  of  her  intentions,  no 
stain  must  be  suffered  to  disgrace  our  arms.  We  are 
soldiers  ambitious  only  to  aid  in  restoring  the  violated 
rights  of  citizens,  and  these  secured,  we  are  to  return 

100 


instantly  to  the  business  and  employments  of  civilized 
life.  Let  it  be  a  truth  deeply  impressed  on  the  minds 
of  everyone  of  us  who  bear  arms,  and  let  us  evince  to 
the  world  that,  in  contending  for  liberty,  we  abhor  li- 
centiousness;  that,  in  resisting  the  misrule  of  tyrants, 
we  shall  support  government  honestly  administered. 
All  unnecessary  violence  to  the  persons  or  property 
of  his  Majesty's  subjects  must,  therefore,  most  strictly 
be  forbidden  and  avoided.  Let  us  act  as  becomes  the 
virtuous  citizen,  who  seeks  for  the  aid  of  righteous 
heaven  and  the  just  applause  of  an  impartial  world. 
Liberty,  Safety,  and  Peace  are  our  objects — the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Constitution  and  not  the  lust  of 
dominion.  .  .  .  These  are  principles  I  wish 
deeply  implanted  in  the  heart  of  every  soldier  I  have 
the  honor  to  command.  They  will  lead  us  to  glory — 
they  will  merit  for  us  the  esteem  of  our  countrymen." 
While  public  sentiment  in  New  York  was  yet  in- 
clined to  a  policy  of  waiting  and  trusting  to  an  accom- 
modation with  the  mother  country,  in  New  England 
the  bloodshed  at  Lexington  had  aroused  an  aggressive 
feeling  and  a  desire  to  strike  some  defiant  blow  at 
British  power.  In  the  old  wars  in  America  between 
England  and  France,  it  was  well  remembered  that 
Ticonderoga  had  been  the  great  military  prize.  The 
mountain  fortress  between  Lakes  George  and  Cham- 
plain  which  controlled  the  passage  to  Canada — there 
had  been  fought  the  bloodiest  and  the  most  decisive 
battles.  Hence  had  come  the  suggestion  of  the  bold 

101 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

expedition  of  Benedict  Arnold  and  Ethan  Allen, 
which,  on  the  night  of  the  loth  of  May,  had  sur- 
prised the  garrison  of  Ticonderoga  and  had  placed 
the  fort  and  its  military  supplies  in  the  power  of  the 
Continental  forces. 

This  striking  feat  seemed  to  open  the  door  to 
Canada.  Congress,  hitherto  reluctant,  now  resolved 
upon  an  invasion  and  confided  its  conduct  to  Schuyler. 
He  left  New  York  on  the  fourth  of  July  in  a  sloop, 
stopped  at  Albany  for  a  few  days  to  take  measures 
for  the  protection  of  the  western  frontier  against  the 
Johnson  family  and  their  Indian  allies,  and  arrived 
at  Ticonderoga  on  the  eighteenth. 

Then  ensued  six  weeks  of  military  preparations 
under  great  difficulties.  Schuyler's  letter  books  are 
filled  with  correspondence  with  the  Congress  at  Phila- 
delphia, with  the  Provincial  Congress  at  New  York, 
with  Governor  Trumbull  of  Connecticut,  relating  to 
the  accumulation  of  men,  money,  arms,  clothing,  lead, 
powder,  and  materials  for  boat-building  at  Ticon- 
deroga. His  own  ingenuity  and  credit  were  strained 
to  the  utmost.  When  he  first  arrived  the  situation 
seemed  almost  hopeless.  "  I  have  neither  boats  suffi- 
cient," he  wrote  to  Congress,  "  nor  any  materials  for 
building  them.  The  stores  I  ordered  from  New  York 
are  not  yet  arrived.  I  have,  therefore,  not  a  nail,  no 
pitch,  no  oakum,  and  want  a  variety  of  articles  indis- 
pensably necessary,  which  I  estimated  and  delivered 
into  the  New  York  Congress  on  the  3d  instant.  An 

102 


MILITARY    DIFFICULTIES 

almost  equal  scarcity  of  ammunition  exists,  no  powder 
having  yet  come  to  hand;  not  a  gun  carriage  for  the 
few  proper  guns  we  have,  and  as  yet  very  little  pro- 
vision. There  are  now  two  hundred  less  troops  than 
by  my  last  return.  These  are  badly,  very  badly 
armed,  indeed,  and  only  one  poor  armorer  to  repair 
their  guns."  The  Provincial  Congress  wrote :  "  Our 
troops  can  be  of  no  service  to  you.  They  have  no 
arms,  clothes,  blankets,  or  ammunition;  the  officers 
no  commissions,  our  treasury  no  money,  ourselves  in 
debt.  It  is  in  vain  to  complain.  We  will  remove 
difficulties  as  fast  as  we  can,  and  send  you  soldiers 
whenever  the  men  we  have  raised  are  entitled  to  that 
name."  With  these  obstacles,  great  as  they  were, 
Schuyler  was  fitted  to  contend.  He  struggled  hard, 
and  by  the  end  of  August  had  fifteen  hundred  men 
fairly  armed  and  equipped,  and  boats  ready  to  convey 
them  up  the  lake. 

But  there  were  other  difficulties  more  serious  to 
Schuyler,  and  which  his  character  and  education  were 
less  adapted  to  meet  successfully.  In  the  preparation 
for  this  expedition  it  was  understood  that  Connecti- 
cut should  provide  men  and  that  New  York  should 
provide  money  and  supplies.  It  turned  out  to  be  an 
unfortunate  arrangement.  The  jealousy  and  enmity 
between  the  inhabitants  of  New  York  and  of  Con- 
necticut were  strong.  The  New  England  troops  were 
extremely  averse  to  placing  themselves  under  the 
command  of  a  general  from  New  York,  especially 

103 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

when  that  officer  was  "  a  Dutchman  "  who  had  main- 
tained the  right  of  his  colony  to  the  Hampshire 
Grants.  Schuyler  naturally  placed  all  provisions  from 
whatever  source  at  the  disposal  of  the  troops  as  a 
whole.  But  Connecticut  officers  objected  to  Connecti- 
cut flour  being  supplied  to  New  York  men,  and 
claimed  that  they  should  have  sole  control  over  all 
provisions  sent  by  their  colony.  Such  an  idea  as 
continental  union  for  the  general  good  of  all  was  too 
new  yet  for  acceptance. 

Schuyler  had  requested  the  appointment  of  his 
nephew,  Walter  Livingston,  as  deputy  commissary- 
general,  and  Congress  had  appointed  him.  When  his 
commission  arrived,  Livingston  happened  to  be  in 
company  with  Elisha  Phelps  and  Zebediah  Strong, 
who  had  been  sent  as  commissaries  in  charge  of  Con- 
necticut supplies.  Livingston's  commission  as  com- 
missary-general, issued  by  the  Continental  Congress, 
took  precedence  of  those  of  Phelps  and  Strong.  The 
result  was  a  quarrel  and  an  appeal  to  Schuyler.  He 
explained  the  matter  to  Phelps,  who  yielded  grace- 
fully, but  Strong  could  not  control  his  feeling  at  be- 
coming subordinate  to  a  New  York  officer.  "  God 
forbid,"  he  wrote  to  Schuyler,  "  that  any  overgrown 
colony  or  overbearing  man  should  at  this  critical  junc- 
ture use  such  pernicious  partiality  as  to  attempt  to 
monopolize  every  emolument."  He  apologized  later 
for  this  language,  but  the  incident  was  one  of  many 

104 


INSUBORDINATION    OF   MILITIA 

which  kept  up  a  disturbing  friction  and  made  organi- 
zation difficult. 

Connected  with  the  intercolonial  jealousies  and  still 
harder  to  deal  with  was  the  aversion  to  discipline  and 
subordination  on  the  part  of  the  New  England  troops. 
These  were  composed  of  men  accustomed  to  complete 
equality  and  individual  liberty.  Living  isolated  on 
their  farms,  with  little  distinction  of  wealth  and  none 
of  social  position,  they  had  never  known  control  or 
the  habit  of  obedience.  Their  officers  were  chosen 
among  themselves,  and,  while  respected  as  leaders, 
were  not  regarded  in  any  sense  as  superiors.  They 
had  little  more  thought  of  exercising  authority  than 
their  soldiers  had  of  acknowledging  it.  The  dislike 
of  discipline  and  subordination  created  difficulties 
enough  in  their  own  ranks,  but  when  it  met  the  mili- 
tary system  of  Schuyler,  it  developed  into  hatred  of 
a  supposed  tyranny.  Schuyler  found  the  men  crowded 
into  barracks  with  entire  disregard  of  sanitary  pre- 
cautions, and  their  health  becoming  so  bad  that  one- 
third  were  incapacitated  for  duty.  His  attempts  to 
introduce  reforms  in  this  particular  were  sullenly  re- 
sisted. At  home  the  men  were  accustomed  to  severe 
physical  labor.  Since  arriving  at  Ticonderoga  they 
had  done  nothing  but  clean  their  guns  and  turn  out 
for  parade.  They  were  spoiling  for  their  accustomed 
exercise.  Schuyler  set  them  to  work,  partly  as  a 
health  measure  and  partly  to  forward  the  boat-build- 
ing and  other  preparations  for  the  expedition.  This 

105 


LIFE   OF  GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

was  regarded  as  a  hardship,  and  made  the  subject 
of  complaint.  The  commissary  department  was  with- 
out regulation,  the  men  helping  themselves  to  what 
they  wanted,  and  wasting  ruinously.  They  considered 
that  the  provisions  belonged  to  them  and  resented 
their  control,  especially  by  an  officer  from  another 
colony.  They  were  patriotic  and  brave,  ready  to 
fight,  but  wishing  to  do  it  in  their  own  way,  as  par- 
tisans, not  as  a  regular  army.  To  introduce  business 
order,  to  inculcate  obedience  on  the  part  of  officers 
and  men,  were  tasks  trying  to  a  man  of  Schuyler's 
methodical  habits  and  somewhat  imperious  temper. 
The  difficulty  was  deeply  seated,  as  Montgomery 
found  when  he  was  making  his  campaign  in  Canada. 
"  They  are  the  worst  stuff  imaginable  for  soldiers," 
he  wrote  home.  ''They  are  homesick;  their  regi- 
ments are  melted  away,  and  yet  not  a  man  dead  of  any 
distemper  among  them.  There  is  such  an  equality 
among  them  that  the  officers  have  no  authority. 
.  .  .  The  privates  are  all  generals,  but  not  sol- 
diers." When  experience  in  war  had  taught  the  New 
England  men  the  necessity  of  unquestioning  obedience, 
they  made  the  very  backbone  of  the  American  army. 
But  meanwhile  they  were  difficult  to  command. 

Schuyler  lacked  the  patience  and  conciliatory  dis- 
position which  such  work  required.  Habituated  to 
order  and  system,  he  was  irritated  by  the  indifference 
to  these  qualities  which  he  saw  about  him.  Accus- 
tomed to  the  exercise  of  authority,  and  to  the  respect 

106 


INSUBORDINATION    OF    MILITIA 

which  a  man  in  his  position  received  in  the  province 
of  New  York,  he  could  not  understand  the  familiarity 
and  independence  of  the  New  England  men.  He  de- 
scribed the  situation  to  Washington,  who  thus  re- 
plied from  Cambridge:  "  I  can  easily  judge  of  your 
difficulties  in  introducing  order  and  discipline  into 
troops  who  have  from  their  infancy  imbibed  ideas  of 
the  most  contrary  kind.  It  would  be  far  beyond  the 
compass  of  a  letter  for  me  to  describe  the  situation  of 
things  here  on  my  arrival.  Perhaps  you  will  only 
be  able  to  judge  of  it  from  my  assuring  you  that  mine 
must  be  a  portraiture  at  full  length  of  what  you  have 
had  in  miniature.  Confusion  and  discord  reigned  in 
every  department,  which,  in  a  little  time,  must  have 
ended  either  in  the  separation  of  the  army  or  fatal 
contests  with  one  another.  .  .  .  However,  we 
mend  every  day,  and  I  flatter  myself  that  in  a  little 
time  we  shall  work  up  these  raw  materials  into  a  good 
manufacture.  I  must  recommend  to  you,  what  I  en- 
deavor to  practise  myself — patience  and  persever- 
ance." "  I  can  easily  conceive,"  answered  Schuyler, 
"  that  my  difficulties  are  only  a  faint  semblance  of 
yours.  Yes,  my  general,  I  will  strive  to  copy  your 
bright  example,  and  patiently  and  steadily  persevere 
in  that  line  which  alone  can  promise  the  wished-for 
reformation." 

The  New  England  opposition  to  Schuyler  was 
destined  to  bear  bitter  fruit  for  him.  A  strong  preju- 
dice existed  against  him  before  he  assumed  command. 

107 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

His  efforts  to  introduce  military  order  into  the  army 
at  Ticonderoga,  his  regulation  of  supplies,  his  sani- 
tary measures,  his  requirement  of  labor  on  the  part 
of  the  soldiers,  induced  a  feeling  of  animosity  which 
took  form  in  suspicions  of  his  loyalty  to  the  patriot 
cause.  The  situation  is  described  in  a  curious  con- 
temporary letter  written  from  the  camp  in  July,  1775. 
Accompanying  Colonel  Hinman's  regiment,  as  chap- 
lain, was  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith,  of  Sharon, 
well  known  through  western  Connecticut  as  "  Parson 
Smith."  He  wrote  to  his  wife:  "  You  wish  to  know 
if  the  rumors  about  General  Schuyler  are  true,  if  he 
is  secretly  a  Tory  ?  Saying  that  you  are  requested  to 
ask  me.  My  dear  wife,  they  are  not  true.  Say  this 
(to  any  who  ask  you)  on  my  authority,  for  I  speak 
whereof  I  do  know.  Gen'l  Schuyler  is  as  earnest  a 
patriot  as  any  in  our  land,  and  he  has  few  superiors  in 
any  respect.  I  do  grieve  that  so  many  of  our  New 
England  men  should  so  fail  to  do  him  justice.  Yet 
are  they  not  quite  without  excuse,  not  for  their  sus- 
picions, but  for  their  dislike.  The  Gen'l  is  somewhat 
haughty  and  overbearing.  He  has  never  been  accus- 
tomed to  seeing  men  that  are  reasonably  well  taught, 
and  able  to  give  a  clear  opinion,  and  to  state  their 
grounds  for  it,  who  were  not  also  persons  of  some 

wealth  and  rank;  and  when  our  blacksmith  C 

came  up  to  the  Gen'l  without  any  preliminaries  to 
offer  him  some  information  and  advice,  but  withal 
not  disrespectfully,  the  Gen'l,  albeit  the  information 

108 


INTERCOLONIAL   JEALOUSY 

was  of  importance  and  should  have  speedy  attention 
— spake  very  sharply  to  the  poor  man  and  bade  him 
begone.  He  could  easily  have  seen  that  the  man 
meant  no  harm  and  was  far  more  intelligent  than  the 
most  of  his  *  stupid  Dutchmen '  (as  I  grieve  to  say 
that  our  N.  E.  men  are  too  apt  to  call  'em)  even 
when  they  are  officers;  but  it  was  not  until  I  had  ex- 
plained to  him  that  the  man  was  well  descended  and 
only  a  blacksmith  by  reason  that  his  grandfather's 
English  estates  had  been  forfeited  to  the  crown,  that 
the  Gen'l  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  listen  to  him. 
This  is  our  commander's  one  weakness,  and  I  would 
not  have  you  repeat  it  to  any  one.  On  the  other  hand, 
our  men  are  much  too  free  with  their  strictures.  Full 
one-third  of  my  time  is  taken  up  in  trying  to  make 
them  see  that  we  have  no  warrant  for  suspicions  of 
him  and  every  reason  for  the  greatest  confidence.  I 
am  in  a  position  to  form  a  good  judgment,  and  I 
consider  Gen'l  Schuyler  to  be  an  honorable  gentle- 
man, a  man  of  unusual  probity,  an  excellent  com- 
manding officer,  and  most  devoted  to  our  cause.  Tell 
all  who  talk  to  you  about  him  just  what  I  here  do 
say,  and  bid  'em  to  pay  no  heed  to  aught  the  perverse 
faultfinders  like  E.  N.  and  N.  W.  may  choose  to  say." 
Another  contemporary  letter,  which  throws  much 
light  on  this  subject  so  near  to  Schuyler,  was  written 
by  James  Lockwood  to  Silas  Deane,  from  Fort 
George,  in  October,  1775,  when  the  troops  were  on 
their  way  to  Canada  under  Montgomery:  "I  am 

109 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

not  unacquainted  how  apt  soldiers  are  to  report 
groundless  ill-natured  stories  about  officers,  neither 
do  I  believe  one-fiftieth  part  of  the  complaints  against 
General  Schuyler  have  any  real  foundation  in  truth. 
He  has  certainly  had  a  most  arduous,  very  disagree- 
able piece  of  business  of  it,  and  has  done  perhaps  as 
much,  if  not  more,  than  any  other  man  could  do;  yet 
thus  it  is,  neither  the  officers  nor  the  soldiers  of  the 
army  love  him,  and  Montgomery,  who  has  been  the 
darling  of  the  army,  they  now  complain  much  of. 
.  .  .  In  short,  sir,  it  certainly  ever  was  and  ever 
will  be  of  the  greatest  importance  that  every  general 
officer  is  well  acquainted  with  the  genius,  temper,  and 
dispositions  of  the  people  that  compose  his  army. 
Our  New  England  people  will  not  at  once  submit  to 
the  usages  frequently  practised  among  regular  troops. 
It  is  my  opinion  that  the  greater  part  of  the  uneasi- 
ness has  arisen  from  this  quarter." 

With  Schuyler  at  Ticonderoga  was  Richard  Mont- 
gomery, the  brigadier-general  appointed  from  New 
York,  one  of  the  heroic  figures  of  the  Revolution.  He 
was  born  December  2,  1738,  at  Conway  House,  near 
Raphoe,  in  the  North  of  Ireland,  the  third  son  of  an 
Irish  baronet.  His  eldest  brother  was  an  officer  in  the 
English  army,  the  second  was  a  merchant  at  Lisbon, 
and  a  sister  was  married  to  Lord  Ranelagh.  He  stud- 
ied at  Dublin  College,  and  at  eighteen  entered  the 
English  army  as  an  ensign.  During  the  Seven  Years' 
War  his  regiment  was  ordered  to  Halifax,  and  in  1758 

no 


GENERAL    MONTGOMERY 

he  was  with  Wolfe  at  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  the 
French  fortress  which  guarded  the  entrance  to  the 
St.  Lawrence  River.  Here  he  was  promoted  to  a  lieu- 
tenancy. During  the  remainder  of  the  war  he  served 
under  Amherst  and  at  its  conclusion  went  to  the  West 
Indies,  where,  in  1762,  he  became  captain.  In  1772 
he  resigned  his  commission  and  sailed  from  England 
for  New  York  with  the  design  of  settling  there.  He 
married  Janet,  eldest  child  of  Judge  Robert  R.  Liv- 
ingston, of  Clermont,  and  began  farming  at  Rhine- 
beck.  In  1775  he  was  chosen  a  delegate  from 
Dutchess  County  to  the  first  Provincial  Congress. 
There  he  felt  himself  to  be  of  little  use,  as  he  had  no 
facility  in  public  speaking.  But  the  scanty  written 
records  of  him  show  that  he  could  express  himself  in 
private  in  language  both  noble  and  much  to  the  point. 
On  receipt  of  his  commission  he  wrote :  '  The  Con- 
gress, having  done  me  the  honor  of  electing  me  a 
brigadier-general  in  their  service,  is  an  event  which 
must  put  an  end  for  a  while,  perhaps  forever,  to  the 
quiet  scheme  of  life  I  had  prescribed  for  myself;  for 
though  entirely  unexpected  and  undesired  by  me,  the 
will  of  an  oppressed  people,  compelled  to  choose  be- 
tween liberty  and  slavery,  must  be  obeyed."  It  is 
related  by  L.  L.  Hunt,  in  notes  on  Montgomery,  that, 
"  he  came  into  his  wife's  room  and  asked  her  to  make 
up  for  him  the  ribbon  cockade  which  was  to  be  placed 
on  his  hat.  He  saw  her  emotion  and  marked  the 
starting  tear.  With  persuasive  gentleness,  he  said 

in 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

to  her :  Our  country  is  in  danger.  Unsolicited  in  two 
instances,  I  have  been  distinguished  by  two  honorable 
appointments.  As  a  politician  I  could  not  serve  them. 
As  a  soldier,  I  think  I  can.  Shall  I  then  accept  the 
one  and  shrink  from  the  other  in  dread  of  danger? 
My  honor  is  engaged."  On  his  departure  for  the 
army,  Judge  Livingston  said  to  him :  "  Take  care  of 
your  life."  To  which  he  replied,  "  Of  my  honor,  you 
would  say,  sir."  To  his  wife,  his  last  words  were, 
'  You  shall  never  blush  for  your  Montgomery." 

By  the  middle  of  August,  Schuyler  had  made  great 
progress  with  the  preparations  for  the  expedition. 
Enough  boats  had  been  built  to  convey  the  troops 
down  the  lake  and  sufficient  ammunition  and  food 
were  at  hand  for  immediate  needs.  Meanwhile  great 
alarm  was  felt  at  Albany  concerning  the  hostile  atti- 
tude of  the  Indians  in  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and 
Schuyler  went  south  to  attend  a  council  with  the 
savages.  Before  he  could  finish  this  business  he  re- 
ceived news  from  Montgomery  that  the  activity  of  the 
enemy  at  St.  John's  necessitated  the  immediate  move- 
ment of  the  troops  and  that  he  was  about  to  start  for 
the  north. 

Schuyler  was  ill,  but  he  made  his  way  back  to  Ticon- 
deroga  as  fast  as  he  could;  and  notwithstanding  in- 
creasing illness,  embarked  in  a  small  boat  on  which  a 
bed  was  improvised  and  had  himself  taken  to  the  Isle 
aux  Noix,  twelve  miles  south  of  St.  John's,  where,  in 
a  condition  of  great  weakness,  he  joined  Montgomery 

112 


SCHUYLER'S    ILLNESS 

on  the  5th  of  September.  "  Poor  Schuyler,"  Mont- 
gomery wrote  to  his  wife,  "  is  in  so  miserable  a  state 
of  health  as  to  make  him  an  object  of  compassion." 
Schuyler  wrote  and  forwarded  into  Canada  an  address 
to  the  population  intended  to  win  their  adhesion  to 
the  American  cause,  and  considered  with  Montgomery 
the  plans  of  the  coming  campaign;  but  his  illness  in- 
creased in  the  swampy  country  where  the  army  was 
encamped,  he  felt  himself  to  be  useless  and  unable  to 
endure  the  hardships  of  the  campaign  and  returned  to 
Ticonderoga  on  the  i8th.  On  the  2Oth  he  wrote  to 
Washington :  "  I  find  myself  much  better  as  the  fever 
has  left  me,  and  hope  soon  to  return  where  I  ought 
and  wish  to  be,  unless  a  barbarous  relapse  should 
dash  the  cup  of  hope  from  my  lips."  But  the  com- 
bination of  gout  and  bilious  fever  from  which  he  suf- 
fered was  not  to  leave  him.  The  25th  of  September 
he  wrote  to  the  Continental  Congress  :  "The  vexation 
of  spirit  under  which  I  labor  that  a  barbarous  com- 
plication of  disorders  should  prevent  me  from  reaping 
those  laurels  for  which  I  have  so  unweariedly  wrought, 
since  I  was  honored  with  this  command,  the  anxiety 
of  mind  I  have  suffered  since  my  arrival  here  lest  the 
army  should  starve,  occasioned  by  a  scandalous  want 
of  subordination  and  inattention  to  my  orders,  in  some 
of  the  officers  that  I  left  to  command  at  the  different 
posts;  the  vast  variety  of  disagreeable  and  vexatious 
incidents  that  almost  every  hour  arise  in  some  depart- 
ment or  other,  not  only  retard  my  cure,  but  have  put 

"3 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

me  considerably  back  for  some  days  past.  If  Job  had 
been  a  general  in  my  situation,  his  memory  had  not 
been  so  famous  for  patience.  But  the  glorious  end 
which  we  have  in  view,  and  which  I  have  a  confident 
hope  will  be  attained,  will  atone  for  all."  To  the 
Provincial  Congress,  he  wrote  in  October:  "  My  dis- 
orders have  taken  such  deep  root,  that  I  now  begin 
to  have  little  hope  of  recovery  so  as  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  future  operations  of  the  campaign.  I  hope, 
however,  that  I  shall  not  be  obliged  to  leave  this 
place,  unhealthy  and  unfavorable  to  my  recovery  as 
it  is,  lest  it  should  involve  General  Montgomery  in 
irremediable  inconveniences." 

Notwithstanding  his  illness,  Schuyler  carried  on  all 
the  business  of  collecting  and  forwarding  supplies  to 
the  army  in  Canada.  Montgomery  wrote  to  his  wife : 
"  General  Schuyler's  return  to  Ticonderoga  has  been 
a  most  fortunate  affair.  We  should  most  certainly 
have  been  obliged  to  return  half  starved,  and  to  leave 
the  unfortunate  Canadians  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves." "  Your  residence  at  Ticonderoga,"  he  wrote 
to  Schuyler  from  St.  John's,  "  has  probably  enabled 
us  to  keep  our  ground.  How  much  do  the  public  owe 
you  for  your  attention  and  activity." 

The  invasion  of  Canada  at  this  early  period  of  the 
struggle  was  an  illustration  of  the  aggressive  deter- 
mination of  the  patriot  party.  Not  content  with  re- 
sisting the  armed  attacks  of  the  ministry,  not  content 
with  the  great  fight  which  Washington  was  waging 

"4 


MONTGOMERY'S    EXPEDITION 

against  the  British  army  at  Boston,  the  patriots  under- 
took to  carry  the  war  into  Africa  and  to  wrest  from 
England  possessions  which  were  not  involved  in  the 
quarrel.  It  was  an  act  of  defiance,  which  emphasized 
the  warlike  feeling  of  the  colonies  and  showed  the 
mother  country  that  a  defensive  war  was  not  all  she 
had  to  face.  Moreover,  an  invasion  of  Canada  seemed 
to  be  the  best  preventive  of  an  invasion  from  Canada. 
For  such  reasons  the  expedition  was  well  judged. 
But  with  the  small  force  at  the  disposal  of  the  colonies, 
with  the  extreme  difficulty  of  obtaining  and  forward- 
ing military  supplies,  success  was  hardly  possible. 

Montgomery  started  at  the  end  of  August,  and 
reached  St.  John's,  the  fort  which  protected  Montreal 
on  the  south,  in  the  middle  of  September.  A  siege  of 
fifty  days  ensued,  the  garrison  surrendering  November 
3d.  The  long  delay  incurred  at  St.  John's  was  very 
injurious  to  the  prospects  of  the  expedition,  for  win- 
ter, with  its  hardships,  was  brought  so  much  the 
nearer.  On  the  I2th,  Montreal  was  taken,  and  Mont- 
gomery proclaimed  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  to  which  he  urged  the  inhabitants  to  send 
delegates.  Although  successful  so  far,  the  most  diffi- 
cult task,  the  capture  of  Quebec,  yet  lay  before  him. 
At  about  the  same  time  that  he  had  left  Ticonderoga, 
Washington  had  sent  Benedict  Arnold  with  a  detach- 
ment from  his  own  army  at  Cambridge  with  orders 
to  reach  Quebec  by  way  of  the  Merrimac  River. 
Through  great  labor  and  suffering,  which  reduced  his 

"5 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

command  by  one  half,  Arnold  had  surmounted  every 
obstacle.  Through  an  intercepted  letter,  Montgom- 
ery learned  that  Arnold  was  before  Quebec,  and  that 
"  the  King's  friends  "  there  expected  to  be  besieged, 
"  which,"  said  the  gallant  general,  "  with  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  they  shall  be,  if  the  severe  season  holds 
off  and  I  can  prevail  on  the  troops  to  accompany  me." 
This  last  proviso  indicated  an  impediment  to  Mont- 
gomery's success  which  so  far  had  seemed  to  him 
more  serious  than  any  enemy.  Among  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  little  army  there  existed  a  spirit  of  in- 
subordination which  frustrated  his  plans  and  de- 
pressed his  spirit.  The  example  was  set  by  officers. 
Captain  Baker,  a  leader  of  the  Green  Mountain  Boys, 
contrary  to  express  orders,  went  up  into  Canada  with 
five  companions  to  see  what  he  could  do  on  his  own 
account.  Meeting  with  a  party  of  Indians  in  a  canoe, 
he  wantonly  fired  upon  them,  killing  two.  He  got  a 
bullet  through  his  own  head,  which  was  well  deserved, 
but  the  surviving  savages  paddled  off  with  their  tale 
of  injury,  and  did  much  to  frustrate  the  efforts  of 
Schuyler  and  Montgomery  to  keep  the  Indians  neu- 
tral. Ethan  Allen,  "  the  hero  of  Ticonderoga,"  was 
proceeding  at  the  head  of  his  company  to  join  Mont- 
gomery at  the  siege  of  St.  John's.  On  the  way  it 
occurred  to  him  that  he  might  steal  a  march  on  his 
commanding  officer  and  win  much  glory  for  himself 
by  making  an  independent  attack  on  Montreal  with 

116 


MONTGOMERY'S   EXPEDITION 

his  own  force.  This  he  did,  sacrificing  his  whole  com- 
pany, which  Montgomery  much  needed.  He  was 
himself  taken  prisoner,  put  into  irons  as  a  sort  of 
pirate,  and  complained  loudly  of  a  punishment  which 
was  due  entirely  to  his  own  folly  and  disobedience.  In 
Montgomery's  own  camp  there  was  a  set  of  officers, 
some  from  New  England,  some  from  New  York,  who 
were  constantly  telling  the  general  what  they  would 
do,  what  they  would  not  do,  and  what  he  ought  to  do. 
All  this  was  galling  to  the  brave  but  not  over-patient 
Montgomery.  He  was  the  leader  of  a  guerrilla  band, 
not  the  general  of  regular  troops. 

As  to  the  men,  they  were  not  soldiers  by  education 
or  habit  and  a  great  many  soon  concluded  that  they 
did  not  want  to  be.  They  were  homesick;  they  had 
enlisted  for  a  few  months  from  patriotic  feeling,  but 
their  time  was  up.  A  considerable  number  refused 
to  proceed  after  the  taking  of  St.  John's,  and  Mont- 
gomery had  got  them  as  far  as  Montreal  only  by 
promising  to  discharge  them  there.  Now  they  de- 
clined to  face  the  hardships  of  a  winter  campaign  in 
Canada.  Some  alleged  the  expiration  of  their  terms 
of  enlistment,  others  their  health,  others  again  were 
mutinous,  making  their  presence  undesirable.  Mont- 
gomery had  to  discharge  a  great  many.  Schuyler 
wrote  to  Congress  of  the  arrival  of  some  of  these  men 
at  Ticonderoga :  "  About  three  hundred  of  the 
troops  raised  in  Connecticut  passed  here  within  a  few 
days.  An  unhappy  homesickness  prevails.  These  all 

117 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

came  down  as  invalids,  not  one  willing  to  re-engage 
for  the  winter's  service;  and  unable  to  get  any  work 
done  by  them,  I  discharged  them  en  groupe.  Of  all 
the  specifics  ever  invented  for  any  there  is  none  so 
efficacious  as  a  discharge  for  this  prevailing  disorder. 
No  sooner  was  it  administered  but  it  perfected  the 
cure  of  nine  out  of  ten;  who,  refusing  to  wait  for 
boats  to  go  by  way  of  Lake  George,  slung  their  heavy 
packs,  crossed  the  lake  at  this  place,  and  undertook  a 
march  of  two  hundred  miles  with  the  greatest  good 
will  and  alacrity." 

When  Montgomery  had  joined  Arnold  before 
Quebec  their  combined  forces  numbered  but  twelve 
hundred  men.  As  General  Carleton,  the  British  com- 
mander, would  not  come  out  to  fight,  it  was  resolved 
to  storm  the  works.  On  the  last  day  of  December, 
1775,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  amidst  a  driving 
snow  storm,  Arnold  and  Montgomery  attacked,  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  town.  Arnold  fell  badly  wound- 
ed; Montgomery  dead,  struck  by  three  bullets, 
when  near  his  goal.  His  body  was  found  at  daybreak 
by  a  detachment  sent  out  by  Carleton,  who  had  been 
his  fellow  officer  in  Wolfe's  army.  It  lay  between 
the  bodies  of  his  two  faithful  aides,  MacPherson  and 
Cheeseman,  nearly  hidden  by  the  drifting  snow,  and 
was  given  a  soldier's  grave  within  the  wall.  Forty- 
three  years  later,  in  July,  1818,  his  wife  stood  alone 
on  the  piazza  of  her  house  at  Rhinebeck,  while  below, 
on  the  waters  of  the  Hudson,  paused  for  a  while  the 

118 


DEATH    OF    MONTGOMERY 

barge  which  bore  the  remains  of  Montgomery  from 
the  heights  of  Quebec  to  their  final  resting  place  at 
St.  Paul's  Church  in  New  York.  The  monument 
visible  from  the  street  by  the  thousands  who  daily 
pass  before  it,  was  designed  by  the  French  sculptor, 
Caffieres,  at  the  order  of  Congress,  and  bears  an  in- 
scription composed  by  Benjamin  Franklin. 

The  early  successes  of  Montgomery  and  all  that 
was  known  of  him  had  created  a  strong  feeling  in  his 
favor  throughout  the  country.  Proportionately  great 
was  the  mourning  when  the  news  of  his  death  was 
received.  Thomas  Lynch,  attending  Congress  in 
Philadelphia,  v.Tote  to  Schuyler:  "  Never  was  a  city 
so  universally  struck  with  grief  as  this  was  on  hearing 
of  the  loss  of  Montgomery.  Every  lady's  eye  was 
filled  with  tears.  I  happened  to  have  company  at 
dinner,  but  none  had  inclination  for  any  other  food 
but  sorrow  or  resentment.  Poor,  gallant  fellow!  If 
a  martyr's  sufferings  merit  a  martyr's  reward,  his 
claim  is  indisputable.  I  am  sure  that  from  the  mo- 
ment he  left  Ticonderoga  to  the  moment  of  his  re- 
lease by  death,  his  sufferings  had  no  interval.  He 
now  rests  from  his  labor,  and  his  works  can't  but  fol- 
low him." 

The  blow  to  Schuyler  was  a  severe  and  personal 
one.  Between  the  two  generals  there  had  never  been 
a  misunderstanding  nor  any  feeling  but  perfect  confi- 
dence and  regard.  In  his  last  letter  to  Montgomery, 
Schuyler  had  said:  "  Adieu,  my  dear  sir;  may  I  have 

"9 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

the  pleasure  soon  to  announce  another  of  your  victor- 
ies, and  afterwards  that  of  embracing  you."  It  was 
but  a  few  days  later  when  he  was  obliged  to  write  to 
Washington :  "  I  wish  I  had  no  occasion  to  send  my 
dear  general  the  enclosed  melancholy  accounts.  My 
amiable  friend,  the  gallant  Montgomery,  is  no  more  I 
The  brave  Arnold  is  wounded,  and  we  have  met  with 
a  very  severe  check  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  on 
Quebec.  May  Heaven  be  graciously  pleased  to  ter- 
minate the  misfortune  here.  I  tremble  for  our  people 
in  Canada." 

When  the  news  of  the  death  of  Montgomery 
reached  London,  the  opposition  seized  the  occasion 
to  sound  his  praises  and  to  reprove  the  ministry. 
Chatham  and  Burke  spoke  feelingly,  and  Colonel 
Barre,  a  companion  of  Montgomery's  in  the  French 
War,  was  deeply  moved  as  he  dwelt  on  the  fine  quali- 
ties of  the  dead.  But  Lord  North  declared:  "  I  can- 
not join  in  lamenting  the  death  of  Montgomery  as  a 
public  loss.  He  was  undoubtedly  brave,  humane,  and 
generous;  but  still  he  was  only  a  brave,  humane,  and 
generous  rebel.  Curse  on  his  virtues,  they've  undone 
his  country."  To  which  Fox  pointedly  replied :  "  The 
term  rebel  is  no  certain  mark  of  disgrace.  All  the 
great  assertors  of  liberty,  the  saviors  of  their  coun- 
try, the  benefactors  of  mankind  in  all  ages,  have  been 
called  rebels.  We  owe  the  constitution  which  enables 
us  to  sit  in  this  house  to  a  rebellion." 

During  the  progress  of  the  expedition  into  Canada, 
120 


MONTGOMERY'S   DIFFICULTIES 

Montgomery  had  written  to  Schuyler  several  times 
regarding  the  insubordination  of  his  troops  and  his 
desire  to  resign.  On  the  I3th  of  October,  at  St. 
John's,  he  said:  "  When  I  mentioned  my  intentions 
regarding  the  campaign,  I  did  not  consider  that  I  was 
at  the  head  of  troops  who  carry  the  spirit  of  freedom 
into  the  field  and  think  for  themselves.  Upon  con- 
sidering the  fatal  consequences  which  might  flow 
from  the  want  of  subordination  and  discipline,  should 
this  ill  humor  continue,  my  unstable  authority  over 
troops  of  different  colonies,  the  insufficiency  of  the 
military  law,  and  my  own  want  of  powers  to  enforce 
it,  weak  as  it  is,  I  thought  it  expedient  to  call  the 
field  officers  together.  Enclosed  I  send  you  the  result 
of  our  deliberations,  which  has  deprived  me  of  all 
hope  of  success."  Again  on  the  3  ist  of  October :  "  I 
am  exceedingly  well  pleased  to  see  General  Wooster 
here,  both  for  the  advantage  of  the  service  and  upon 
my  own  account.  For  I  must  earnestly  request  to  be 
suffered  to  retire,  should  matters  stand  on  such  a  foot- 
ing this  winter  as  to  permit  me  to  go  off  with  honor. 
I  have  not  talents  nor  temper  for  such  a  command.  I 
am  under  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  acting  eternally 
out  of  character,  to  wheedle,  flatter,  and  lie.  I  stand 
in  a  constrained  attitude.  I  will  bear  with  it  for  a 
short  time,  but  I  cannot  support  it  long."  And  on 
November  24th:  "  An  affair  happened  here  yester- 
day which  had  very  near  sent  me  home.  A  number 

121 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

of  officers  presumed  to  remonstrate  against  the  indul- 
gence I  had  given  some  of  the  officers  of  the  King's 
troops.  Such  an  insult  I  could  not  bear,  and  imme- 
diately resigned.  However,  they  have  to-day  quali- 
fied it  by  such  an  apology  as  puts  it  in  my  power  to 
resume  the  command  with  some  propriety,  and  I  have 
promised  to  bury  it  in  oblivion.  Captain  Lamb,  who 
is  a  restless  genius  and  of  a  bad  temper,  was  at  the 
head  of  it.  He  has  been  used  to  haranguing  his  fel- 
low-citizens in  York,  and  cannot  restrain  his  talents 
here.  He  is  brave,  active,  and  intelligent,  but  very 
turbulent  and  troublesome,  and  not  to  be  satisfied." 
Schuyler  informed  Congress  of  Montgomery's  in- 
tentions, adding:  "  My  sentiments  exactly  coincide 
with  his.  I  shall,  with  him,  do  everything  in  my 
power  to  put  a  finishing  stroke  to  the  campaign.  This 
done  I  must  beg  leave  to  retire."  Washington  had 
the  same  difficulties  to  contend  with  which  beset  Mont- 
gomery and  Schuyler.  His  correspondence  during 
this  year  affords  ample  evidence  that  a  spirit  of  dis- 
order and  unmilitary  independence  pervaded  the  camp 
about  Boston  as  well  the  army  in  New  York.  He 
wrote  to  that  effect  to  Schuyler  urging  him  to  bear 
with  everything  for  the  sake  of  the  cause.  Schuyler 
agreed  that  such  was  the  patriotic  course,  which  he 
would  wish  to  follow,  but  he  added,  "  I  think  that  I 
should  prejudice  my  country  by  continuing  any  longer 
in  this  command.  The  favorable  opinion  you  are 

122 


INTERCOLONIAL   JEALOUSY 

pleased  to  entertain  of  me,  obliges  me  to  an  explana- 
tion which  I  shall  give  you  in  confidence.  I  have  al- 
ready informed  you  of  the  disagreeable  situation  I 
have  been  in  during  the  campaign,  but  I  would  waive 
that,  were  it  not  that  it  has  arisen  chiefly  from  preju- 
dice and  jealousy.  For  I  could  point  out  particular 
persons  of  rank  in  the  army  who  have  frequently  de- 
clared that  the  general  commanding  in  this  quarter 
ought  to  be  of  the  colony  whence  the  majority  of  the 
troops  come.  But  it  is  not  from  the  opinion  or  prin- 
ciples of  individuals  that  I  have  drawn  the  following 
conclusion:  That  troops  from  the  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut will  not  bear  with  a  general  from  another 
colony.  It  is  from  the  daily  and  common  conversation 
of  all  ranks  of  people  from  that  colony,  both  in  and 
out  of  the  army;  and  I  assure  you,  that  I  sincerely 
lament  that  a  people  of  so  much  public  virtue  should 
be  actuated  by  such  an  unbecoming  jealousy,  founded 
on  such  a  narrow  principle — a  principle  extremely  un- 
friendly to  our  righteous  cause — as  it  tends  to  alienate 
the  affections  of  numbers  in  this  colony,  in  spite  of  the 
most  favorable  constructions  that  prudent  men  and 
real  Americans  among  us  attempt  to  put  upon  it.  And 
although  I  frankly  avow  that  I  feel  a  resentment,  yet 
I  shall  continue  to  sacrifice  it  to  a  nobler  object — the 
welfare  of  that  country  in  which  I  have  drawn  the 
breath  of  life." 

During  the  winter  of  1775-76,  much  of  Schuyler's 
123 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

attention  was  occupied  by  the  attitude  of  the  John- 
son family,  their  Scotch  dependents  and  the  Indian 
tribes  in  the  Mohawk  Valley.  Disaffections  and  hos- 
tility there  were  extremely  dangerous.  When  the  city 
of  New  York  and  the  lower  Hudson  fell  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  British,  the  State  of  New  York,  for  all 
purposes  of  the  war,  consisted  only  of  the  upper  Hud- 
son and  the  Mohawk  valleys. 

The  remarkable  life  of  Sir  William  Johnson  was 
suddenly  terminated  at  Johnson  Hall  in  July,  1774, 
by  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  probably  brought  on  by 
anxiety  over  the  political  situation.  His  title,  his 
wealth,  his  office  of  Indian  agent  were  derived  from 
the  Crown.  The  principles  at  issue  between  the  colo- 
nies and  the  ministry  interested  him  little  in  the  isola- 
tion of  his  forest  domain.  His  death  occurred  before 
he  was  obliged  to  declare  for  either  side;  but  the 
inclination  of  his  sympathy  was  shown  by  the  attitude 
of  his  successors.  His  son  John  inherited  the  baron- 
etcy and  Johnson  Hall.  His  nephew  and  son-in-law 
Guy  became  Indian  agent,  and  lived  at  his  place, 
called  Guy  Park,  on  the  Mohawk  River,  a  mile  from 
the  present  village  of  Amsterdam.  Both  the  John- 
sons assumed  a  menacing  attitude.  Sir  John  fortified 
Johnson  Hall,  organized  the  Tryon  County  militia, 
and  assumed  its  command.  Guy  held  secret  confer- 
ences with  the  Indians  at  Guy  Park.  After  the  news 
of  Lexington  and  Concord  had  arrived,  he  became 
alarmed  at  the  aspect  of  affairs,  went  up  the  Mohawk 

124 


CONCILIATION    OF   INDIANS 

Valley  with  his  family  to  Fort  Stanwix,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded westward  into  the  wilderness,  stopping  at  all 
the  Indian  encampments  and  urging  the  chiefs  to  take 
sides  with  the  British. 

The  Continental  Congress,  realizing  the  impor- 
tance of  keeping  the  Indians  neutral,  appointed  a 
commission  to  meet  them,  consisting  of  Philip  Schuy- 
ler,  Joseph  Hawley,  Turbutt  Francis,  Oliver  Wol- 
cott,  and  Volckert  P.  Douw.  They  held  a  council 
in  the  summer,  taking  the  ground:  "This  is  a  fam- 
ily quarrel  between  us  and  Old  England.  You 
Indians  are  not  concerned  in  it.  We  do  not  wish 
you  to  take  up  the  hatchet  against  the  King's 
troops.  We  desire  you  to  remain  at  home,  and  not 
join  on  either  side,  but  keep  the  hatchet  buried  deep." 
In  September,  1775,  another  council  was  held  at 
Albany,  which  terminated  peacefully  and  calmed  the 
fears  of  immediate  danger  from  the  Indians.  It  was 
the  last  Indian  council  ever  held  in  Albany,  and 
Schuyler  presided  over  it  until  called  away  by  the 
departure  of  Montgomery's  army. 

During  the  early  winter  the  Tories  in  Tryon  Coun- 
ty continued  their  hostile  attitude  and  numerous  acts 
of  violence  against  the  Whigs  were  committed  by 
them.  When  the  first  Liberty  pole  was  set  up  in 
the  Mohawk  Valley,  the  sheriff,  named  White,  led  a 
band  of  loyalists  who  cut  it  down;  and  White  carried 
his  aggressions  so  far  that  the  Whigs  organized 
against  him  and  drove  him  away.  He  sought  safety 

125 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

in  Canada,  was  captured  on  the  upper  Hudson  and 
sent  by  Schuyler  as  a  prisoner  to  Albany.  The  Tryon 
County  patriot  committee,  of  which  the  famous 
Nicholas  Herkimer  was  chairman,  kept  a  watch  over 
Sir  John  Johnson,  but  took  no  active  measures 
against  him  as  he  committed  no  overt  act. 

Early  in  January,  1776,  Schuyler  decided  that  a 
blow  must  be  struck  at  the  Tories  in  Tryon  County 
which  would  discourage  the  disaffection  there.  News 
was  brought  to  him  at  Ticonderoga  that  Sir  John  had 
seven  hundred  armed  Tories  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Johnson  Hall.  Schuyler  collected  several  hundred 
men  in  Albany,  and  on  the  i6th  of  January  mached 
through  the  valley,  collecting  Whigs  as  he  went,  until 
he  had  about  three  thousand  men.  He  met  Sir  John 
at  Guy  Park,  where  the  baronet  had  repaired  in  com- 
pany with  some  chiefs  of  his  Scotch  Highlanders  and 
Indians  to  show  the  support  which  he  had  at  his  back. 
Schuyler  demanded  Sir  John's  parole  not  to  act  in- 
imically  to  the  patriot  cause,  the  surrender  of  all  arms 
and  ammunitions  in  the  possession  of  the  Tories  and 
Indians  at  Johnson  Hall,  and  the  cessation  of  hostile 
acts  against  the  Whigs.  Johnson  asked  for  a  delay 
of  a  day  in  sending  his  reply.  Schuyler  assented,  but 
meanwhile  moved  on  to  Johnstown.  There  Sir  John 
referred  to  his  influence  over  the  Indians  and  sug- 
gested terms  of  his  own.  "  I  have  given  Sir  John," 
replied  Schuyler,  "  until  twelve  o'clock  to-day  to  con- 
sider my  terms,  after  which,  if  he  shall  not  comply, 

126 


THE   JOHNSONS   AND    TORIES 

I  shall  take  such  measures  as  will  make  him,  and  who- 
ever assists  him,  feel  the  power  in  my  hands."  John- 
son yielded  at  the  appointed  time,  gave  his  parole  to 
commit  no  hostile  act  and  not  to  go  westward  of  the 
German  Flatts.  The  arms  and  ammunition  were  given 
up,  three  hundred  Scotch  Highlanders  laying  down 
their  arms  in  the  street  of  Johnstown.  Schuyler  re- 
turned to  Albany  with  two  cannon,  several  swivels,  a 
quantity  of  guns  and  ammunition,  six  chiefs  of  the 
Highlanders,  and  a  hundred  Tory  prisoners  whom  he 
held  as  hostages.  Washington  was  much  pleased  by 
this  action  and  Congress  voted  that  Schuyler  had  per- 
formed "  a  meritorious  service." 

In  the  early  spring,  however,  rumors  arrived  that 
Johnson  was  again  inciting  the  Indians  to  war,  and 
Schuyler  summoned  him  to  Albany.  There  he  pro- 
tested that  he  would  observe  his  parole,  and,  there 
being  no  definite  proofs  against  him,  he  was  allowed 
to  return.  At  the  same  time  Schuyler  sent  Samuel 
Kirkland,  the  missionary,  and  James  Deane,  the  inter- 
preter, among  the  Indians  to  conciliate  them  and  to 
spread  the  news  of  Washington's  victory  over  the 
British  at  Boston.  Their  mission  seemed  to  be  suc- 
cessful, but  in  May  it  became  evident  to  Schuyler  that 
Johnson  was  not  true  to  his  word.  He  sent  Colonel 
Dayton  with  three  hundred  picked  men  under  a  pre- 
text to  Johnstown.  At  the  first  opportunity  they  were 
to  arrest  Sir  John  and  carry  him  with  all  his  papers 
to  Albany.  But  Tory  friends  warned  the  Baronet. 

127 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

When  Dayton  arrived,  he  had  fled  with  some  com- 
panions into  the  forest,  and  Lady  Johnson  observed 
defiantly  that  his  enemies  would  soon  know  where  he 
was.  He  made  his  way  with  great  difficulty  and 
suffering  through  the  Adirondacks  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
River  and  Montreal.  There  he  was  commissioned  a 
Colonel  in  the  British  army,  and  raised  among  his 
royalist  followers  a  regiment  of  about  a  thousand 
men,  which,  under  the  name  of  the  Royal  Greens,  was 
afterwards  to  carry  fire  and  sword  along  the  frontiers 
of  New  York.  Schuyler,  since  boyhood,  had  had 
social  relations  with  the  Johnsons,  father  and  son. 
He  considered  Sir  John  as  a  gentleman  who  would 
observe  his  parole,  and  before  the  occasion  arose  for 
sending  the  Dayton  expedition  there  were  no  acts 
sufficiently  definite  to  justify  arrest.  But  the  Baronet's 
escape  was  made  the  most  of  by  Schuyler's  enemies, 
and  it  was  freely  stated  in  New  England  that  his  Tory 
sympathies  had  induced  him  to  connive  at  it. 


128 


CHAPTER  V. 

Failure  of  the  Expedition  Against  Canada. — New 

England  Hostility  to  Schuyler. — The  E forts 

of  Gates  to  Supplant  Him. 

IN  the  spring  of  1776,  the  expedition  against 
Canada  came  to  its  disastrous  and  inevitable  end. 
After  the  death  of  Montgomery,  Arnold  main- 
tained the  siege  of  Quebec  through  the  winter,  en- 
during, with  his  reduced  and  heroic  band,  extreme 
sufferings  from  exposure  and  hunger.  Schuyler's  cor- 
respondence contains  constant  references  to  his  anxiety 
concerning  the  expedition  and  his  efforts  to  assist  it. 
During  the  winter,  communication  was  difficult  and 
rare  through  the  intervening  wilderness  of  snow- 
bound forest.  In  response  to  repeated  prayers  from 
Schuyler  for  men  and  money,  the  Congress  at  Phila- 
delphia could  only  pass  resolutions:  "That  General 
Schuyler  be  directed  to  take  any  further  measures  for 
supplying  the  army  in  Canada  with  provisions  which 
his  prudence  may  suggest,  in  which  Congress  placed 
the  highest  confidence;"  and  again,  "That  General 
Schuyler  be  desired  to  take  care  that  the  army  in 
Canada  be  regularly  and  effectually  supplied  with 
necessaries."  Such  were  the  barren  replies  to  his 

129 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

urgent  requests  at  the  time  that  he  was  writing  to 
Washington:  "Our  military  chest  is  exhausted  and 
we  are  deeply  involved  in  debt.  Ten  thousand  pounds 
will  hardly  pay  what  I  am  personally  bound  for  on 
the  public  account."  To  forward  supplies  to  Quebec 
during  the  winter  was  a  physical  impossibility.  Money 
was  what  Arnold  wanted,  that  he  might  purchase 
necessaries  where  he  was.  Congress  failed  to  furnish 
it,  and  Schuyler  sent  his  own  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
resources.  He  realized  more  than  any  one  what  must 
be  the  wants  and  privations  of  the  army,  and  suffered 
acutely  from  his  inability  to  afford  sufficient  relief. 
In  April,  Arnold  was  succeeded  in  command  by 
Wooster.  He  and  Schuyler,  between  whom  the  New 
York  and  New  England  prejudices  had  caused  a 
breach,  were  not  then  on  good  terms.  But  Schuyler 
wrote  him:  "Whatever  my  sentiments  are  with  re- 
gard to  our  private  disputes,  I  assure  you  that  I  very 
sincerely  pity  your  situation." 

At  last  the  fresh  troops  and  the  money  which 
Schuyler  had  long  and  urgently  begged  from  Congress 
began  to  arrive  in  the  north  and  were  forwarded  by 
him  to  Canada.  They  reached  Quebec  in  May.  But 
it  was  in  vain.  Fleets  had  arrived  from  England  with 
an  army  of  thirteen  thousand  men.  General  Carleton 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  an  overwhelming  force, 
and  there  was  nothing  left  for  the  Americans  but 
retreat.  This  was  conducted  with  great  skill  by  Gen- 
eral Sullivan,  and  the  army  might  have  been  brought 

130 


THE    RETREAT    FROM    CANADA 

home  with  small  loss.  But  camp  sickness  attacked  the 
troops  with  great  virulence,  and  was  soon  followed  by 
an  outbreak  of  smallpox.  By  the  time  the  army 
reached  Crown  Point  in  June  many  had  died  of  dis- 
ease, and  half  of  the  remainder  were  ill.  The  camp 
was  a  hospital,  in  which  the  able  bodied  were  all 
needed  to  care  for  their  unfortunate  companions. 

The  failure  of  the  expedition  against  Canada  was 
due  to  the  simple  cause  that  the  invaders  were  inferior 
in  strength  to  the  British.  Montgomery,  Arnold, 
Wooster,  Sullivan  and  their  troops  had  shown  the 
greatest  intrepidity  and  endurance.  But  the  storming 
party  which  attacked  the  great  fortress  of  Quebec  on 
that  winter  night  in  1775  was  quite  inadequate  in 
numbers  for  such  an  enterprise.  The  small  force  of 
men  which  held  General  Carleton  and  his  garrison  as 
prisoners  within  their  walls  throughout  the  winter 
accomplished  a  great  feat  in  doing  so  much.  The 
American  re-enforcements  sent  in  May  were  outnum- 
bered two  to  one  by  the  new  troops  received  by  the 
enemy.  The  colonies  were  as  yet  too  little  united  and 
organized  to  conduct  effectively  an  aggressive  foreign 
campaign.  Men  and  money  could  be  raised  to  repel 
invasion,  but  not  to  carry  on  war  outside  the  country. 

These  circumstances  were  not  understood  at  the 
time,  and  great  disappointment  followed  the  joy  over 
Montgomery's  early  victories.  The  losses  had  fallen 
chiefly  on  western  New  England,  whence  had  come 
most  of  the  troops  engaged.  The  soldiers  who  had 

131 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

resented  Schuyler's  military  discipline  at  Ticonderoga, 
who  had  given  Montgomery  such  trouble  and  had 
finally  left  him  in  the  lurch  at  Montreal  in  the  autumn 
of  1775,  had  returned  home,  justifying  themselves  by 
accusing  their  commanders  of  tyranny.  When  the 
sick  arrived  at  their  homes  after  the  retreat  in  the 
spring,  they  had  real  sufferings  enough  to  relate.  But 
these  were  incident  to  a  soldier's  life,  aggravated  by 
the  special  difficulties  of  a  campaign  in  the  wilderness. 
But  the  prejudice  already  existing  against  Schuyler 
made  it  easy  to  fasten  upon  him  responsibility  for 
every  evil.  It  was  openly  and  widely  stated  that  he 
was  at  heart  a  Tory  and  had  neglected  the  expedition 
with  the  secret  desire  of  seeing  it  fail.  Of  the  vague 
reports  which  were  spread  to  Schuyler's  discredit  a 
sample  occurs  in  a  letter  of  Walter  Livingston  written 
in  May,  1776:  "Last  Saturday  evening,  arrived  in 
town  Captain  Sheldon,  from  Salisbury,  Connecticut, 
who  advises  that  upon  his  return  from  Hartford  on 
Friday  evening,  he  found  the  people  greatly  alarmed 
by  an  account  that  a  formidable  conspiracy  was  car- 
rying on  by  the  Tories  in  this  quarter;  upon  which 
he  mounted  his  horse  and  proceeded  toward  Albany, 
till  he  came  into  Noble  Town;  where  it  was  said  that 
some  person  in  King's  District  had  pretended  that  he 
could  make  some  important  discoveries  of  the  designs 
of  the  Tories,  if  the  persons  to  whom  he  com- 
municated it  would  inviolably  keep  his  name  a  secret, 
which  was  done,  as  is  said  upon  oath.  Upon  which 

132 


ENMITY    OF   NEW    ENGLAND 

he  told  them  that  General  Schuyler,  the  committee  of 
Albany  and  many  others  were  in  the  Tory  interest. 
That  it  was  in  the  design  of  the  general  to  draw  all 
the  provisions  out  of  the  country,  up  to  the  lakes,  and 
there  to  betray  them  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
and  that  the  people  in  that  part  of  the 
country  were  greatly  alarmed  and  had  sent  to  Gen- 
eral Washington  and  Governor  Trumbull  to  acquaint 
them  of  the  affair." 

Meetings  were  held  in  western  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  in  which  attacks  were  made  upon  the 
general  of  the  northern  department,  and  the  Com- 
mittee of  Berkshire  forwarded  to  Washington  definite 
accusations  against  him  of  disloyalty.  The  com- 
mander-in-chief  forwarded  the  papers  to  Schuyler 
with  the  words:  "From  these  you  will  readily  dis- 
cover the  insidious  diabolical  acts  and  schemes  carry- 
ing on  by  the  Tories  and  friends  of  Government  to 
raise  distrust,  dissensions  and  divisions  amongst  us. 
Having  the  utmost  confidence  in  your  integrity,  and 
the  most  incontestible  proofs  of  your  great  attachment 
to  our  common  country  and  its  interests,  I  could  not 
but  look  upon  the  charges  against  you  with  an  eye 
of  disbelief,  and  sentiments  of  detestation  and  abhor- 
rence ;  nor  should  I  have  troubled  you  with  the  matter 
had  I  not  been  informed  that  copies  were  sent  to 
different  committees,  and  to  Governor  Trumbull, 
which  I  conceived  would  get  abroad,  and  that  you, 
should  you  hear  of  my  being  furnished  with  them, 

133 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

would  consider  my  suppressing  them  as  an  evidence 
of  my  belief,  or  at  best,  my  doubt  of  the  charges." 
"While  this  was  only  report,"  replied  Schuyler,  "I 
treated  it  with  contempt,  without  taking  notice  of  it, 
but  it  is  now  become  a  duty  I  owe  myself  and  my 
country  to  detect  the  scoundrels,  and  the  only  means 
of  doing  this  is  by  requesting  that  an  immediate  in- 
quiry be  made  into  the  matter,  when  I  trust,  it  will 
evidently  appear  that  it  was  a  scheme  more  calculated 
to  ruin  me  than  to  disunite  and  create  jealousies  in 
the  friends  of  America.  Your  Excellency  will,  there- 
fore, please  to  order  a  court  of  inquiry,  the  soonest 
possible,  for  I  cannot  sit  easy  under  such  an  infamous 
imputation,  as  on  this  extensive  continent  numbers 
of  the  most  respectable  characters  may  not  know  what 
your  Excellency  and  Congress  do  of  my  principles 
and  exertions  in  the  common  cause."  And  to  Con- 
gress he  wrote:  "I  have  requested  my  general  for 
an  inquiry  to  be  made  into  my  conduct.  His  soul  is 
above  the  meanness  of  suspicion,  for  his  feelings  are 
the  most  delicate,  and  although  his  opinion  does  me 
the  most  ample  justice,  yet  it  is  a  most  natural  wish 
that  my  innocence  should  be  made  as  public  as  the 
charge  against  me,  which  has  been  industriously  pro- 
pagated, and  ere  this  has  probably  reached  every 
quarter  of  that  country  to  the  preservation  of  which 
my  all  is  devoted."  But  Washington  declined  to 
order  the  court  of  inquiry  because,  as  he  said,  "the 
charges  appeared  so  uncertain,  vague  and  incredible 

134 


HIS    CHARACTER   ATTACKED 

that  there  is  nothing  to  found  proceedings  on,  were 
there  the  most  distant  necessity,  for  the  scrutiny." 
But  these  accusations,  unjustifiable  as  they  were, 
spread  far,  and  were  very  injurious  to  Schuyler.  Even 
such  a  man  as  Robert  Morris  could  write  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Gates:  "Is  it  possible  that  a  man  who 
writes  so  well  and  expresses  such  anxiety  for  the  cause 
of  his  country  as  General  S r  does,  I  say  is  it  pos- 
sible that  he  can  be  sacrificing  the  interest  of  that 
country  to  his  ambition  or  avarice?  I  sincerely  hope 
it  is  not  so.  But  such  insinuations  are  dropped." 

Not  only  was  Schuyler  accused  of  neglecting  the 
troops  in  Canada  with  the  secret  object  of  insuring 
their  defeat,  but  his  enemies  went  so  far  as  to  spread 
the  calumny  that  he  had  embezzled  the  moneys  sent 
to  his  care  for  the  army.  In  May,  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull,  Jr.,  thus  referred  to  these  accusations :  "  You 
have  doubtless  been  informed  of  the  Tory  designs 
and  reports  spreading  in  the  country  respecting  the 
combination  which  is  said  to  have  extended  so  far  as 
to  include  many  respectable  characters,  not  excluding 
yours.  I  have  this  day  heard  from  Connecticut,  and 
am  happy  to  find  these  reports  have  not  had  their 
designed  effect  there.  If  once  our  confidence  in  each 
other  is  destroyed,  we  are  fatally  wounded."  In  June, 
General  Israel  Putnam  wrote  to  Schuyler:  "I  have 
lately  received  letters  from  several  Committees  in 
which  they  say  they  are  now  confident  of  your  great 

135 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

zeal  and  attachment  to  your  country,  and  are  con- 
vinced that  the  late  reports  were  raised  by  people 
notoriously  inimical  to  this  country,  and  that  it  was 
done  with  a  view  of  dividing  us."  It  is  not  difficult 
to  imagine  the  feelings  of  Schuyler  on  being  the  object 
of  such  accusations.  He  made  many  efforts  to  dis- 
cover the  identity  of  his  accusers,  and  having  traced, 
as  he  thought,  some  guilt  to  one  Mr.  Blackden  of 
Salisbury,  Connecticut,  he  complained  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  that  town,  and  received  from  Joshua  Porter, 
its  chairman,  the  following  curious  though  hardly 
satisfactory  answer:  "If  Mr.  Blackden  really  be- 
lieves you  have  detained  the  hard  money  which  was 
sent  to  you  to  forward  to  Canada,  and  if  he  has 
publicly  charged  you  with  detaining  the  same,  in  this 
case  we  think,  as  you  intimate,  it  is  his  duty  to  support 
the  charge;  and  if  it  cannot  be  supported,  the  reproach 
must  recoil  upon  himself,  or  those  who  have  led  him 
to  believe  the  calumny  .  .  .  although  (as  you 
confess  to  believe  of  us)  we  should  be  equally  willing 
to  assist  in  the  detection  of  a  public  robber,  and  of 
a  calumniator,  yet  permit  us  to  say  it  would  give  us 
the  greatest  uneasiness  to  think,  that  an  officer  of  your 
honor's  rank  and  elevated  station  should  lose  the 
confidence  of  the  public,  who  have  so  long  relied  upon 
your  great  abilities  and  inclination  to  serve  them. 
And  though  surmises  to  the  prejudice  of  your  honor's 
character  have  been  as  common,  as  we  hope  they  were 
groundless;  yet  we  cannot  cease  to  wish  that  your 

136 


INTRIGUES   OF   GENERAL   GATES 

good  services  may  continue  to  merit  the  just  applause" 
and  respect  of  your  country;  as  conscious  rectitude 
should  never  be  dismayed,  or  discouraged,  with  the 
poet's  assertion  that 

'  On  eagles' wings,  immortal  scandals  fly, 
While  virtuous  actions  are  but  born  to  die.'  " 

The  difficulties  in  the  northern  department  would 
have  been  adjusted  and  time  would  have  given  the 
New  England  men  a  better  appreciation  of  Schuyler's 
character  had  not  the  selfish  intrigues  of  General 
Gates  kept  up  a  campaign  of  suspicion  and  dislike,  in 
which  Gates  played  the  same  part  toward  Schuyler 
that  Lee  played  toward  Washington.  Gates  had  been 
an  officer  in  the  British  army  during  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  attaining  the  rank  of  major,  and  after 
that  war  had  settled  on  a  plantation  in  Virginia.  In 
1775,  he  offered  his  services  to  Congress,  and  was 
appointed  adjutant  -  general,  with  the  rank  of 
brigadier.  Of  small  military  capacity,  vain  and  un- 
scrupulous, he  had  been  seeking  advancement  in 
Philadelphia  through  the  favor  of  delegates  in  Con- 
gress. In  the  displacement  of  Schuyler  he  saw  a 
chance  to  obtain  an  independent  command  in  the 
north;  and  he  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  convince 
Congress  that  a  change  should  be  made  there.  The 
objection  of  the  New  England  men  to  serve  under  a 
Dutch  general  from  New  York,  and  the  unpopularity 
among  them  of  Schuyler's  military  discipline  had  been 

137 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

known  to  the  New  England  delegates  in  Congress. 
They  were  active  and  powerful  at  Philadelphia,  and 
their  chief,  John  Adams,  was  chairman  of  the  board 
of  war  and  in  a  position  to  carry  out  their  designs. 
That  they  should  have  wished  for  a  change  of  com- 
manders in  the  northern  department  is  not  to  be  placed 
to  their  discredit.  It  was  a  question  of  judgment. 
But  that  they  should  have  chosen  Gates  as  their 
candidate  and  should  have  allowed  themselves  to 
become  the  tools  of  his  intrigue,  was  a  mistake  which 
time  was  to  disclose  very  fully. 

Schuyler  stood  too  high  and  his  influence  in  the 
province  of  New  York  was  too  great  for  an  imme- 
diate or  complete  displacement.  If  a  new  commander 
of  the  northern  department  were  needed,  the  recom- 
mendation of  Washington  would  naturally  have  been 
sought.  But  his  known  regard  for  Schuyler  made 
it  necessary  to  act  in  another  way.  Without  consult- 
ing the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  New  England 
delegates  procured  the  appointment  of  Gates  as  a 
major-general,  and  a  little  later  his  nomination  as 
commander  of  the  army  "in  Canada."  This  was  to 
be  the  entering  wedge  which  would  lead  to  the  higher 
and  coveted  command. 

At  this  time  Sullivan  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Canadian  army,  the  retreat  of  which  he  had  con- 
ducted with  great  credit.  He  did  not  deserve  to  be 
superseded ;  and  when  he  heard  that  Gates,  who  had 

138 


INTRIGUES   OF   GENERAL   GATES 

hitherto  been  a  brigadier-general,  was  placed  in  com- 
mand over  him,  he  justly  considered  it  an  aspersion 
on  his  conduct.  "I  should  not  have  the  least  objec- 
tion," he  wrote  to  Schuyler,  "to  being  commanded  by 
General  Gates — I  have  no  personal  objection  to  him 
— and  would  willingly  have  served  under  him  had  he 
in  the  first  instance  held  a  commission  superior  to 
the  one  Congress  was  pleased  to  honor  me  with.  But 
this  not  being  the  case,  and  the  procedure  so  strong 
an  implication  against  my  conduct,  I  must  beg  leave 
to  quit  this  department  with  my  family  and  baggage, 
as  I  cannot  with  honor  act  in  future,  and  shall,  as 
soon  as  possible,  repair  to  Congress  and  petition  for 
leave  to  resign  my  commission."  When  Sullivan  took 
formal  leave  of  his  officers  they  presented  him  with 
an  address  expressive  of  their  admiration  for  his 
services,  to  which  were  attached  the  valued  names 
of  Hazen,  Stark,  Poor,  Antill  and  St.  Clair.  Thus 
the  party  in  Congress  opposed  to  Schuyler  began  their 
campaign  against  him  by  the  injury  of  a  deserving 
officer  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  quarrel. 

On  the  25th  of  June,  Schuyler  heard  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  Gates  to  the  command  of  the  army  in  Canada 
and,  unsuspicious  of  the  intrigue  which  was  proceed- 
ing, wrote  him  cordially  to  hasten  up  to  Albany, 
"that  we  may  advise  together  on  the  most  eligible 
methods  to  be  pursued  to  prevent  an  increase  of  our 
misfortunes  in  this  unlucky  quarter.  Be  so  good  as 
to  take  a  bed  with  me,  that  whilst  you  remain  here 

139 


we  may  be  together  as  much  as  possible."  Gates 
arrived,  much  pleased  with  his  instructions,  which 
gave  him  full  and  independent  powers,  but  all  quali- 
fied by  the  words  which  limited  their  operation  to 
the  army  "in  Canada."  He  was  much  crestfallen, 
therefore,  when,  at  Albany,  he  found  that  his  army 
was  no  longer  "in  Canada,"  but  in  New  York  and 
consequently  under  the  command  of  Schuyler. 

Mindful,  however,  of  the  party  in  Congress  at  his 
back,  he  soon  recovered  his  equanimity  and  proceeded 
to  assert  himself.  Among  other  proceedings,  he  intro- 
duced to  Schuyler  a  Mr.  Avery,  of  Massachusetts; 
and  Avery  immediately  made  a  formal  demand  upon 
Schuyler  for  money  to  conduct  the  commissary-gen- 
eral's department  in  Albany.  Schuyler,  much  sur- 
prised, informed  him  that  Walter  Livingston  was 
commissary  of  the  northern  department,  and  that, 
while  in  Albany,  Avery  must  consider  himself  subor- 
dinate to  Livingston.  The  latter's  "great  family 
connections  in  this  country,"  added  Schuyler,  "have 
enabled  him  to  carry  on  the  service  when  others  could 
not."  And  of  this  he  gave  instances.  Gates  could  find 
no  reply  to  make  and  left  the  room  with  Avery.  But 
hardly  outside  he  declared  to  Avery  that  as  soon  as 
they  reached  the  army  he  would  make  him  commis- 
sary. This  remark  was  overheard  and  repeated  to 
Schuyler,  who  saw  that  an  issue  was  made  which 
should  be  settled  at  once.  For  Gates  to  make  such 
an  appointment  was  to  declare  himself  independent 

140 


INTRIGUES   OF   GENERAL   GATES 

of  Schuyler  in  New  York.  Schuyler  recalled  Gates, 
and  the  whole  matter  of  the  latter's  powers  was 
gone  over  between  them.  Schuyler  made  a  complete 
statement  of  the  issue  in  a  letter  to  Washington, 
which,  being  shown  to  Gates,  was  accepted  by  him 
as  accurate.  "If  Congress,"  wrote  Schuyler,  "intended 
that  General  Gates  should  command  the  northern 
army,  wherever  it  may  be,  as  he  assures  me  they  did, 
it  ought  to  have  been  signified  to  me,  and  I  should 
then  have  immediately  resigned  the  command  to  him ; 
but  until  such  intention  is  properly  conveyed  to  me,  I 
never  can.  I  must  therefore  entreat  your  Excellency 
to  lay  this  letter  before  Congress,  that  they  may 
clearly  and  explicitly  signify  their  intentions,  to  avert 
the  dangers  and  evils  that  may  arise  from  a  disputed 
command;  for  after  what  General  Gates  has  said,  the 
line  must  be  clearly  drawn."  When  this  letter  was 
received  from  Washington  by  Congress,  that  body 
speedily  declared  "that  Major-General  Gates  be  in- 
formed that  it  was  the  intention  of  Congress  to  give 
him  the  command  of  the  troops  while  in  Canada,  but 
that  they  had  no  design  to  invest  him  with  a  command 
superior  to  General  Schuyler  while  the  troops  should 
be  on  this  side  of  Canada." 

This  decision  and  the  apparent  acquiescence  in  it 
by  Gates  set  at  rest  the  suspicions  of  Schuyler,  and  he 
wrote  to  the  President  of  Congress  on  the  iyth  of 
July:  "When  gentlemen  act  with  candor  to  each 
other,  a  difference  in  opinion  will  seldom  be  attended 

141 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL    PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

with  any  disagreeable  consequences.  I  am  happy,  sir, 
that  I  can  assure  you  that  the  most  perfect  good 
understanding  exists  between  General  Gates  and  me, 
insomuch  that  it  gives  him  pain  that  I  was  under  the 
necessity  of  quitting  the  army  to  repair  here  at  this 
critical  juncture.  You  will  please  to  assure  Congress 
that  I  am  deeply  impressed  with  the  necessity  of 
mutual  confidence  among  all  its  officers,  and  that  I 
shall  never  neglect  any  measure  that  may  have  a 
tendency  to  so  desirable  an  end.  I  have  seen,  with 
the  deepest  affliction,  the  unhappy  jealousy  which 
reigned  in  the  Northern  Army  occasioned  by  colonial 
distinctions  both  injurious  to  the  cause  of  America 
and  disgraceful  to  the  authors  of  them."  And  to 
Washington  he  wrote:  "It  gives  me  a  very  sincere 
and  a  heartfelt  pleasure  that  I  can  declare  that  differ- 
ence in  opinion  between  General  Gates  and  me  has 
been  simply  such,  unattended  with  that  little  jealousy 
which  would  have  reflected  disgrace  upon  both.  Be 
assured,  sir,  that  the  most  perfect  harmony  subsists 
between  us,  and  that  I  shall,  by  every  attention  to 
General  Gates,  strictly  cultivate  it,  as  well  to  increase 
my  own  felicity  as  to  promote  the  public  service." 

How  different  was  the  attitude  of  Gates  is  shown 
by  his  correspondence,  which  discloses  a  definite 
scheme  to  supplant  his  superior  officer.  And  the 
party  which  he  had  formed  on  his  behalf  continued 
their  campaign  of  misrepresentation  and  abuse.  Gov- 
ernor Trumbull  of  Connecticut,  writing  to  Williams, 

142 


GATES   AND    SCHUYLER 

said:  "It  is  justly  to  be  expected  that  General  Gates 
is  discontented  with  his  situation,  finding  himself 
limited  and  removed  from  the  command,  to  be  a 
wretched  spectator  of  the  ruin  of  the  army,  without 
power  of  attempting  to  save  them."  And  the  Gov- 
ernor's son  Joseph  wrote  to  Gates:  "I  find  you  are 
in  a  cursed  situation;  your  authority  at  an  end;  and 
commanded  by  a  person  who  will  be  willing  to  have 
you  knocked  in  the  head,  as  General  Montgomery 
was,  if  he  can  have  the  money  chest  in  his  power." 
Elbridge  Gerry,  of  the  New  England  delegation  in 
Congress,  wrote  him:  "We  want  very  much  to  see 
you  with  the  sole  command  of  the  northern  depart- 
ment, but  hope  you  will  not  relinquish  your  exertions 
until  a  favorable  opportunity  shall  effect  it."  Some 
members  of  Congress,  knowing  what  was  going  on, 
tried  to  dissuade  Gates  from  his  course.  Among  these 
were  Charles  Carroll  and  Samuel  Chase,  both  of 
whom  had  visited  the  northern  department  in  the 
spring,  and  as  Commissioners  of  Congress  had  ex- 
amined personally  into  all  its  affairs.  Carroll  wrote 
to  Gates  urging  him  to  put  away  his  prejudice  against 
Schuyler,  as  he  knew  him  to  be  "an  active  and  deserv- 
ing officer;"  and  Chase  recommended  him  to  place 
"the  most  unreserved  and  unlimited  confidence  in 
Schuyler."  The  latter  was  still  in  ignorance  of  Gates's 
character  and  wrote  to  him  in  August:  "I  find  the 
jealousies  with  respect  to  me  have  not  yet  subsided 
in  the  country.  I  am  informed  that  some  committees 

143 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

r 

at  the  eastward,  in  this  and  the  adjacent  States,  are 
trying  me.  I  wish  Congress  may  at  last  comply  with 
my  entreaties,  and  order  an  inquiry  on  the  many 
charges  made  against  me,  that  I  may  not  any  longer 
be  insulted.  I  assure  you  that  I  am  sincerely  tired  of 
abuse,  that  I  will  let  my  enemies  arrive  at  the  com- 
pletion of  their  wishes,  by  retiring  as  soon  as  I  shall 
have  been  tried,  and  attempt  to  serve  my  injured 
country  in  some  other  way,  where  envy  and  detraction 
have  no  temptation  to  follow  me." 

In  July,  while  the  disputed  question  of  command 
was  still  unsettled,  Schuyler  preserved  a  friendly  rela- 
tion with  Gates,  and  the  two  generals  journeyed 
northward  together  to  visit  the  army  just  returning 
from  Canada.  John  Trumbull,  afterwards  the  dis- 
tinguished artist,  was  an  officer  in  the  suite  of  Gates, 
and  has  left  a  graphic  account  of  what  he  saw.  Gen- 
eral Gates,  he  says,  landed  at  Albany  in  the  evening, 
and  "proceeded  immediately  to  visit  General  Schuyler, 
whom  we  found  with  his  family,  just  seated  at  supper. 
I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  elegant  style  of 
everything  I  saw.  We  here  learned  the  news  of  fresh 
disasters  in  Canada,  and  the  next  morning,  accom- 
panied by  General  Schuyler,  we  departed  on  horse- 
back for  Skeensborough.  The  road  as  far  as  Saratoga 
was  good ;  thence  to  Fort  Edward  tolerable ;  but  from 
that  to  the  head  of  Lake  Champlain,  bad  as  possible, 
and  not  a  bridge  over  any  of  the  small  streams  and 

144 


THE    NORTHERN   ARMY 

brooks  which  fall  into  Wood  Creek.  From  Skeens- 
borough  we  proceeded  with  all  diligence  by  water  to 
Ticonderoga,  where  we  learned  that  the  troops  driven 
from  Canada  were  beginning  to  arrive  at  Crown 
Point.  The  two  generals  went  forward  to  that  place 
without  delay,  leaving  me  with  orders  to  examine  the 
ground  on  the  east  side  of  the  lake.  .  .  .  The 
next  morning  I  went  forward  to  Crown  Point,  where 
I  rejoined  my  general,  and  there  saw,  in  all  its  horrors, 
the  calamities  of  unsuccessful  war. 

"Early  in  May,  re-enforcements  from  England  had 
reached  Quebec,  and  our  troops  were  of  course  obliged 
to  retire.  They  were  constantly  harassed  in  their  retreat 
and,  in  addition,  the  smallpox,  in  its  most  virulent  and 
deadly  form,  had  made  its  appearance  among  them. 
General  Thomas  died  of  this  loathsome  disease  at 
Chambly,  and  the  command  devolved  on  General 
Sullivan,  who  conducted  this  calamitous  retreat  in  an 
admirable  manner,  but  was  driven  from  post  to  post 
until  he  reached  St.  John's,  at  the  northern  extremity 
of  Lake  Champlain.  At  that  time  no  road  existed 
on  either  side  of  the  lake,  and  the  only  communication 
with  Albany  and  the  southern  country  was  by  its 
waters.  General  Sullivan  having  secured  all  the  ves- 
sels and  boats  at  St.  John's  and  destroyed  all  which 
were  not  necessary  for  the  conveyance  of  his  troops, 
by  this  means  effectually  prevented  the  immediate 
advance  and  pursuit  of  the  enemy.  Thus  the  wretched 
remnant  of  the  army  reached  Crown  Point  in  safety, 

145 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

but  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  state  of  much  deeper 
misery.  The  boats  were  leaky  and  without  awnings ; 
the  sick,  being  laid  upon  their  bottoms  without  straw, 
were  soon  drenched  in  the  filthy  water  of  that  pecu- 
liarly stagnant  muddy  lake,  exposed  to  the  burning 
sun  of  the  month  of  July,  with  no  sustenance  but 
raw  salt  pork,  which  was  often  rancid,  and  hard  bis- 
cuit or  unbaked  flour;  no  drink  but  the  vile  water  of 
the  lake,  modified  perhaps,  but  not  corrected  by  bad 
rum,  and  scarcely  any  medicine. 

"My  first  duty,  upon  my  arrival  at  Crown  Point, 
was  to  procure  a  return  of  the  number  and  condition 
of  the  troops.  I  found  them  dispersed,  some  few  in 
tents,  some  in  sheds,  and  more  under  the  shelter  of 
miserable  bush  huts,  so  totally  disorganized  by  the 
death  or  sickness  of  officers  that  the  distinction  of 
regiments  and  corps  was  in  a  great  degree  lost;  so 
that  I  was  driven  to  the  necessity  of  great  personal 
examination,  and  I  can  truly  say  that  I  did  not  look 
into  a  tent  or  hut  in  which  I  did  not  find  either  a 
dead  or  a  dying  man.  I  can  scarcely  imagine  any 
more  disastrous  scene,  except  the  retreat  of  Bonaparte 
from  Moscow — that  probably  was  the  very  acme  of 
human  misery.  I  found  the  whole  number  of  officers 
and  men  to  be  five  thousand  two  hundred,  and  the 
sick  who  required  the  attentions  of  a  hospital  were 
two  thousand  eight  hundred,  so  that  when  they  were 
sent  off  with  the  number  of  men  necessary  to  row 
them  to  the  hospital,  which  had  been  established  at 

146 


CROWN    POINT   AND   TICONDEROGA 

the  south  end  of  Lake  George,  a  distance  of  fifty 
miles,  there  would  remain  but  the  shadow  of  an  army. 
Crown  Point  was  not  tenable  by  such  a  wreck,  and  we 
were  ordered  to  fall  back  upon  Ticonderoga  imme- 
diately." 

In  face  of  the  situation  which  Schuyler  found  at 
Crown  Point,  he  had  to  consider,  first  of  all,  the 
means  of  caring  for  and  saving  the  sick,  and  of  pre- 
venting the  spread  of  disease  in  the  army  already 
present  and  among  the  troops  which  were  on  their 
way  to  join  and  re-enforce  that  army.  He  called  a 
council  of  all  the  higher  officers,  and  with  their  ap- 
proval ordered  that  those  ill  with  contagious  diseases 
should  be  sent  to  Fort  George,  where  a  hospital  was 
immediately  established;  and  that  the  army  with  the 
rest  of  the  sick  should  abandon  Crown  Point  and 
take  post  at  Ticonderoga  at  the  head  of  the  lake. 
Crown  Point  was  a  low  and  insalubrious  situation 
without  buildings  to  protect  the  troops  either  sick  or 
well,  and  now  so  tainted  by  disease  that  to  bring 
re-enforcements  there  was,  in  the  words  of  Gates,  only 
to  add  one  hospital  to  another.  It  was  also  a  place 
far  inferior  to  Ticonderoga  in  strength.  The  latter 
fortress  was  on  high  ground  with  barracks,  accessible 
for  supplies  and  the  strongest  natural  position  in  the 
country.  The  course  pursued  by  Schuyler  appeared 
then,  and  was  proved  by  its  results  to  be,  the  wisest 
under  the  circumstances. 

But  some  of  the  lesser  officers  at  Crown  Point,  all 
147 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

New  England  men,  held  a  council  of  their  own  in 
which  they  passed  resolutions  declaring  that  the  aban- 
donment of  the  post  left  the  lake  open  to  the  enemy, 
was  dangerous  to  the  New  England  colonies  and 
contrary  to  the  orders  of  Congress.  They  ignored 
entirely  the  infected  condition  of  the  place  and  the 
other  reasons  which  had  governed  the  decision  of 
their  superior  officers  in  the  previous  council.  This 
remonstrance  was  sent  by  its  signers  to  officers  in 
Washington's  army;  was  by  them  considered  without 
any  hearing  of  the  real  reasons  which  caused  the 
abandonment  of  Crown  Point,  and  resulted  in  a  vote 
of  censure  of  that  action.  Washington  was  led  by 
this  one-sided  presentation  of  the  case  to  express  his 
disapproval  of  the  removal  of  the  troops  to  Ticon- 
deroga.  Schuyler  was  naturally  indignant  at  this 
treatment.  He,  Gates,  Arnold  and  the  other  general 
officers  of  the  northern  army,  being  on  the  spot  and 
knowing  all  the  facts,  had  agreed  upon  a  course  of 
action  as  in  their  opinion  the  best.  Now  councils  of 
inferior  officers  were  allowed  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
their  superiors  and  to  pass  votes  of  censure  upon 
them.  In  any  regularly  organized  army  such  conduct 
would  subject  the  offenders  to  court  martial  and  pun- 
ishment. It  was  destructive  of  every  notion  of  dis- 
cipline and  order.  Schuyler  wrote  to  Congress  several 
times,  urgently  requesting  a  court  of  inquiry  into  his 
own  conduct.  Congress  not  granting  his  request,  on 
the  1 4th  of  September  he  sent  in  a  formal  resignation, 

148 


ASKS    FOR    COURT    OF    INQUIRY 

at  the  same  time  stating  that  it  was  not  to  elude  any 
inquiry  Congress  might  be  pleased  to  make.  "On  the 
contrary,"  he  said,  "it  is  a  duty  I  owe  to  myself,  to  my 
family  and  to  the  respectable  Congress  of  this  State, 
by  whose  recommendation,  unsolicited  by  me,  Con- 
gress, I  believe,  was  induced  to  honor  me  with  a 
command,  that  I  should  exculpate  myself  from  the 
many  odious  charges  with  which  the  country  resounds 
to  my  prejudice.  I  trust  I  shall  be  able  fully  to  do  it, 
to  the  confusion  of  my  enemies  and  their  abettors. 
But,  aggrieved  as  I  am,  my  countrymen  will  find  that 
I  shall  not  be  influenced  by  any  unbecoming  resent- 
ment, but  that  I  will  steadily  persevere  to  fulfil  the 
duties  of  a  good  citizen,  and  try  to  promote  the  weal 
of  my  native  country  by  every  effort  in  my  power." 

Schuyler's  resignation  and  request  for  a  court  of 
inquiry  were  answered  on  the  2d  of  October  by  the 
following  resolution:  "That  the  President  write  to 
General  Schuyler  and  inform  him  that  Congress  can- 
not consent,  during  the  present  situation  of  their 
affairs,  to  accept  of  his  resignation,  but  request  that 
he  continue  the  command  that  he  now  holds ;  that  he 
be  assured  that  the  aspersions  which  his  enemies  have 
thrown  out  against  his  character  have  had  no  influence 
upon  the  minds  of  the  members  of  this  house  who 
are  fully  satisfied  of  his  attachment  to  the  cause  of 
freedom,  and  are  willing  to  bear  their  testimony  of 
the  many  services  which  he  has  rendered  to  his  coun- 
try; and  that,  in  order  effectually  to  put  calumny  to 

149 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

silence,  they  will,  at  any  early  day,  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  their  own  body  to  inquire  fully  into  his 
conduct,  which  they  trust  will  establish  his  reputation 
in  the  opinion  of  all  good  men." 

A  complimentary  resolution  was  not  what  Schuyler 
wanted.  He  felt  that  a  court  of  inquiry  to  review 
and  pass  upon  his  official  acts  was  due  to  him  after 
his  own  repeated  requests  and  the  publicity  of  the 
attacks  against  him.  He  felt  the  mortification  of  an 
honorable  man  accused  of  ill-conduct  who  is  denied 
the  opportunity  to  vindicate  himself.  But  worse  was 
to  follow.  The  party  in  Congress  opposed  to  him 
succeeded  in  getting  a  committee  appointed  to  inves- 
tigate the  affairs  of  the  northern  department,  which 
was  directed  to  confer,  not  with  Schuyler,  but  with 
Gates,  his  inferior  in  command.  Schuyler  must  in- 
deed have  been  possessed  of  more  than  ordinary 
patience  to  endure  without  anger  treatment  so  un- 
precedented. "I  have  suffered  such  brutal  outrage 
from  Congress,"  he  wrote  to  General  Scott,  "that 
every  gentleman  who  has  ever  honored  me  with  his 
friendship  ought  to  blush  for  me  if  I  did  not  resent 
it.  The  treatment  I  have  experienced  puts  it  out  of 
my  power  to  hold  any  office,  the  appointment  to  which 
must  be  made  by  Congress.  A  late  instance  of  their 
conduct  towards  me  is  equally  replete  with  brutality 
and  folly;  they  have  sent  up  a  committee  to  confer 
with  my  inferior  officer  upon  what  is  proper  to  be 
done  in  this  department,  and  resolved  that  they  will 

150 


ASKS    FOR    COURT    OF    INQUIRY 

not  consent  to  my  resignation."  To  Robert  R.  Liv- 
ingston he  wrote :  "Will  you  believe  that  Mr.  Clymer 
and  Mr.  Stockton  were  ordered  to  repair  to  Ticon- 
deroga  to  confer  with  General  Gates?  They  arrived 
here  on  Friday  evening,  dined  and  supped  with  me 
yesterday,  but  have  not  opened  their  lips  on  any 
public  business;  that  is  to  be  transacted  with  my 
inferior  officer  under  my  very  nose.  A  more  brutal 
insult  could  not  be  offered,  an  insult  which  I  will  not 
bear  with  impunity  from  any  body  of  men  on  earth." 

Resolved  to  bring  about  the  inquiry  which  he  de- 
sired to  clear  his  character,  Schuyler  requested  per- 
mission of  Congress  to  repair  to  Philadelphia,  and 
received  from  the  President  in  November  an  answer 
saying:  "The  situation  of  the  northern  army  being 
at  this  juncture  extremely  critical,  and  your  services 
in  that  department  of  the  highest  use  and  importance, 
the  Congress  wish  for  a  continuance  of  your  influence 
and  abilities  on  behalf  of  your  country.  They  have, 
however,  agreeably  to  your  request,  consented  that 
you  should  repair  to  this  city  whenever,  in  your 
opinion,  the  service  will  admit  of  your  absence." 

Earnestly  as  Schuyler  wished  to  make  the  journey 
to  Philadelphia  and  to  set  himself  right  there,  the 
projected  visit  was  postponed  from  month  to  month 
by  public  business.  He  wrote  to  Congress  in  Decem- 
ber: "Much  as  I  wish  to  do  myself  the  Jionor  to  pay 
my  respects  to  Congress,  yet  so  much  is  to  be  done 
here,  and  no  other  general  officer  in  the  department, 


that  it  would  not  be  prudent  for  me  to  quit  it  in  this 
conjuncture."  "I  am  closely  engaged,"  he  wrote  to 
George  Clinton  in  January,  "in  preparation  for  the 
next  campaign,  and  shall  hope  that  if  we  can  be  fur- 
nished with  men,  cannon  and  ammunition,  that  the 
enemy  will  not  be  able  to  penetrate  by  the  north." 

Washington  conducting  his  great  campaign  in  New 
Jersey,  needed  re-enforcements,  and  Schuyler  sent 
Gates  to  him  with  a  large  portion  of  the  northern 
army.  Gates  joined  Washington  in  the  dark  days 
before  the  famous  crossing  of  the  Delaware.  Not 
liking  the  outlook,  inconsiderate  of  the  great  com- 
mander who  then  needed  the  assistance  of  every  man 
in  his  little  army,  he  got  permission  to  repair  to 
Philadelphia.  Washington's  army,  with  the  regi- 
ments Gates  had  brought  from  Ticonderoga,  endured 
the  hardships  and  reaped  the  laurels  of  Trenton  and 
Princeton.  But  Gates  meanwhile  was  pursuing  a  cam- 
paign of  another  sort  amidst  the  ease  and  comfort  of 
Philadelphia.  February  and  March  were  spent  in 
strengthening  his  position  with  the  New  England 
delegation,  in  working  upon  their  prejudice  against 
Schuyler,  in  ingratiating  himself  with  whomsoever 
might  prove  useful.  He  had  been  in  command  at 
Ticonderoga  at  the  time  of  Arnold's  gallant  fight 
against  Carleton  on  the  lakes,  which  so  intimidated 
the  British  commander  that  he  had  retired  without 
attacking  the  fort.  The  merit  which  belonged  to 
Arnold,  Gates  boastfully  claimed  for  himself.  When 

152 


SCHEME   TO    DISPLACE   HIM 

Congress  earnestly  requested  him  to  resume  the  office 
of  adjutant-general  in  the  newly  organized  army,  he 
replied  with  scorn  and  not  without  insolence  to  Presi- 
dent Hancock:  "I  had  last  year  the  honor  to  com- 
mand in  the  second  post  in  America,  and  had  the  good 
fortune  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  making  their  so 
much  wished  for  junction  with  General  Howe.  After 
this,  to  be  expected  to  dwindle  again  to  the  adjutant- 
general  requires  more  philosophy  on  my  part  and 
something  more  than  words  on  yours." 

With  the  assistance  of  the  active  New  England 
delegation,  which  controlled  the  Board  of  War,  Gates 
made  a  strong  party  determined  to  procure  his  ap- 
pointment to  independent  command  in  the  northern 
department.  The  difficulty  was  to  set  aside  General 
Schuyler.  They  had  already  done  all  they  could  to 
make  his  post  unpleasant,  and  had  succeeded  in  dis- 
gusting him  with  public  employment.  But  they  were 
only  a  party.  The  Congress  as  a  whole  had  always 
sustained  Schuyler  when  a  clear  issue  was  brought 
before  it.  He  had  offered  to  resign  in  the  autumn  of 
1775,  and  had  been  requested  urgently  not  to  do  so. 
It  was  but  a  few  months  ago  that  his  written  resigna- 
tion was  in  the  hands  of  Congress  who  had  refused 
to  accept  it  with  assurances  of  respect  and  apprecia- 
tion. Something  must  be  done  to  make  him  resign 
again,  and  this  time  the  resignation  must  be  accepted. 
The  occasion  for  a  concerted  attack  was  found  in  a 
letter  written  to  Congress  by  Schuyler  on  the  4th  of 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

February.  At  the  time  of  its  reception  it  attracted 
no  notice;  but  on  the  I5th  of  March  it  was  brought 
before  Congress  as  important  business,  and  the  Gates 
party  was  present  in  force  to  obtain  the  desired  action 
upon  it.  Schuyler's  letter  had  been  on  general  subjects 
concerning  his  department,  but  it  referred  also  to  two 
special  matters :  the  dismissal  of  a  medical  director  in 
the  northern  department,  and  the  conduct  of  Joseph 
Trumbull  of  Connecticut,  a  Commissary-General, 
toward  himself. 

When  Schuyler  first  took  command  at  Ticonderoga 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  sickness  among  the  men, 
and  no  provision  for  physicians  or  medicines.  At  his 
request,  Dr.  Samuel  Stringer  of  Albany  volunteered 
for  the  service  and  supplied  a  quantity  of  medicines 
at  his  own  risk.  His  patriotic  services  were  beyond 
question.  Schuyler  secured  his  reimbursement  for 
his  outlay  and  caused  his  appointment  as  medical 
director.  Stringer  continued  to  render  faithful  service 
and  was  particularly  valuable  among  the  sick  at 
Crown  Point  and  Fort  George  after  the  disastrous 
return  from  Canada.  Schuyler  had  seen  his  work  and 
believed  that  he  deserved  every  recognition  that  his 
country  could  bestow.  He  was,  therefore,  much  sur- 
prised and  annoyed  when  a  notice  of  dismissal  from 
his  post,  without  any  given  reasons,  was  received  from 
Philadelphia  by  Dr.  Stringer.  The  physician  ap- 
pealed to  him  in  vain.  Who  procured  the  dismissal 
and  the  grounds  for  it  do  not  appear.  Schuyler  felt 

i54 


SCHEME   TO    DISPLACE   HIM 

sincere  sympathy  for  the  man  who  seemed  to  be 
treated  with  undeserved  harshness;  and  under  the 
circumstances  his  reference  to  this  matter  in  the  letter 
to  Congress  does  not  seem  very  reprehensible.  His 
words  were :  "As  Dr.  Stringer  had  my  recommenda- 
tion to  the  office  he  has  sustained,  perhaps  it  was  a 
compliment  due  to  me  that  I  should  have  been  advised 
of  the  reasons  for  his  dismissal." 

The  second  sentence  in  the  letter  which  seemed  to 
the  Gates  party  so  offensive  related  to  a  New  England 
man,  Colonel  John  Trumbull,  whose  description  of 
the  camp  at  Crown  Point  has  been  quoted.  He  was 
on  the  best  terms  with  Schuyler,  and  Schuyler  had  the 
kindliest  feelings  toward  him.  But  his  brother 
Joseph,  Commissary-General,  was  an  outspoken  and 
well-known  enemy.  The  enmity  could  be  borne,  but 
lately  it  had  taken  a  form  particularly  galling  to  a 
man  of  Schuyler's  sense  of  honor.  On  the  first  of 
January  he  had  written  to  Congress :  "Last  evening 
I  was  informed  that  amongst  the  letters  lately  inter- 
cepted by  the  enemy  was  one  from  Colonel  Trumbull, 
the  Commissary-General,  in  which  he  insinuated  that 
I  had  secreted  his  brother  Colonel  John  Trumbull's 
commission  as  Adjutant-General.  If  it  be  true  that 
he  has  asserted  such  a  thing  I  shall  expect  from  Con- 
gress that  justice  which  is  due  to  me.  The  commission 
was  never  sent;  at  least  never  received  by  me,  and  if 
it  had  been,  is  there  the  least  probability  that  I  would 
secrete  it,  after  having  recommended  Colonel  John 

iss 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

Trumbull  to  the  office  as  an  active,  discreet  and  sensi- 
ble officer?" 

That  a  Commissary-General  in  the  army  should 
accuse  him  of  secreting  a  commission  issued  by  Con- 
gress seemed  to  Schuyler  to  be  a  matter  for  Congress 
to  investigate;  moreover,  the  continual  attacks  of  this 
sort  were  wearing  out  his  patience.  Congress  would 
not  assist  him  by  appointing  a  court  of  inquiry  which 
might  silence  the  slanders  which  continually  beset 
him.  In  this  instance  he  looked  to  it  for  a  vindication. 
Having  received  no  reply  on  this  subject  for  more 
than  a  month,  he  then,  in  his  letter  of  February  4th, 
enclosed  the  accusing  letter  of  Trumbull,  and  added 
the  following  words:  "I  perceived  by  some  of  the 
resolutions  that  my  letter  of  the  3Oth  December  con- 
tinued to  the  ist  of  January  was  received  by  Congress. 
I  was  in  hopes  some  notice  would  have  been  taken 
of  the  odious  suspicion  contained  in  Mr.  Commissary 
Trumbull's  intercepted  letter  to  the  Hon.  W.  Wil- 
liams, Esq.  I  really  feel  myself  deeply  chagrined  on 
the  occasion.  I  am  incapable  of  the  meanness  he 
suspects  me  of,  and  I  confidently  expected  that  Con- 
gress would  have  done  me  that  justice  which  it  was 
in  their  power  to  give  and  which,  I  humbly  conceive, 
they  ought  to  have  done." 

These  remarks  regarding  Dr.  Stringer  and  Com- 
missary Trumbull  afforded  the  substance  of  the 
charges  which  the  Gates  party  made  against  Schuyler. 
In  a  loosely  constructed  body  like  the  Congress,  with 

156 


HOSTILE   ACTION    OF    CONGRESS 

seldom  more  than  a  bare  quorum  present,  a  small 
but  determined  minority  may  often  carry  through  a 
preconcerted  measure  which  a  majority  of  the  whole 
would  never  have  approved.  At  this  time  the  New 
York  delegation  was  not  present  in  Philadelphia,  and 
the  enemies  of  Schuyler  succeeded  in  passing  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions,  which  they  felt  sure  would  bring 
about  the  desired  resignation : — 

"  RESOLVED,  That  as  Congress  proceeded  to  the 
dismission  of  Doctor  Stringer,  upon  reasons  satisfac- 
tory to  themselves,  General  Schuyler  ought  to  have 
known  it  to  be  his  duty  to  have  acquiesced  therein. 

"  That  the  suggestion  in  General  Schuyler's  letter 
to  Congress,  that  it  was  a  compliment  due  to  him  to 
have  advised  him  of  the  reasons  of  Dr.  Stringer's  dis- 
mission, is  highly  derogatory  to  the  honor  of  Con- 
gress; and  that  the  President  be  desired  to  acquaint 
General  Schuyler  that  it  is  expected  his  letters,  for 
the  future,  be  written  in  a  style  more  suitable  to  the 
dignity  of  the  representative  body  of  these  free  and 
independent  states,  and  to  his  own  character  as  their 
officer. 

"  RESOLVED,  that  it  is  altogether  improper  and 
inconsistent  with  the  dignity  of  this  Congress  to  inter- 
fere in  disputes  subsisting  among  the  officers  of  the 
army;  which  ought  to  be  settled,  unless  they  can  be 
otherwise  accommodated,  in  a  court  martial,  agreeably 
to  the  rules  of  the  army,  and  that  the  expression  in 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

General  Schuyler's  letter  of  the  4th  of  February,  "that 
he  confidently  expected  Congress  would  have  done 
him  that  justice,  which  it  was  in  their  power  to  give, 
and  which  he  humbly  conceives  they  ought  to  have 
done,  were,  to  say  the  least,  ill  advised  and  highly  in- 
decent." 

Soon  after  the  passage  of  these  resolutions,  Gen- 
eral Gates  was  directed  to  repair  immediately  to 
Ticonderoga  to  take  the  command  there,  and  to  em- 
ploy under  him  such  of  the  French  officers*  as  he 
thought  proper;  and  Major-General  St.  Clair  was 
ordered  to  Ticonderoga,  there  to  serve  "under  Gen- 
eral Gates."  Such  orders  virtually  if  not  officially 
placed  Gates  at  the  head  of  the  northern  department. 
He  left  Philadelphia  highly  elated  at  the  results  of 
the  winter's  work. 

Schuyler  duly  received  the  resolutions  of  reprimand 
and  soon  after  heard  of  Gates's  appointment.  The 
resolutions,  in  their  severity,  seemed  to  him  so  entirely 
out  of  proportion  to  any  indiscretion  he  might  have 
committed  in  his  letter  to  Congress,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  Gates  to  independent  command  within  his 
own  department  so  unjust  and  insulting  a  reflection 
upon  him,  that  he  felt  that  he  must  go  to  Philadelphia 
to  face  his  accusers  and  to  settle  his  own  future  in 
regard  to  public  employment.  If  he  deserved  such 
treatment  his  resignation  must  be  given  and  accepted. 
If  he  did  not  deserve  it,  the  resolutions  must  be  ex- 

158 


THE    COMMITTEE    OF   INQUIRY 

punged  from  the  journals  of  Congress  and  he  must 
be  reinstated  in  undisputed  command  of  his  depart- 
ment. He  proceeded  at  once  to  Kingston,  where  the 
New  York  convention  was  in  session,  and  explained 
his  situation  to  the  members.  They  appointed  him 
a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  with  William 
Duer,  and  also  directed  their  other  delegates,  Philip 
Livingston  and  James  Duane  to  go  to  Philadelphia 
and  take  their  seats. 

When  Schuyler  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  in  April, 
he  found  it  extremely  difficult  to  ascertain  the  identity 
of  his  opponents.  From  the  members  in  general  he 
met  with  a  very  cordial  reception,  and  those  whom 
he  believed  to  be  against  him  alleged,  as  he  wrote  to 
his  secretary,  Colonel  Varick,  "that  there  were  no 
complaints  against  me,  and  that  they  have  never  be- 
lieved in  any  of  the  malicious  reports  propagated  to 
my  disadvantage.  They  have,  however,  gone  too  far, 
and  all  that  stands  on  their  journals  injurious  to  me 
must  be  expunged  or  I  quit  the  service." 

A  committee  was  appointed,  consisting  of  one 
delegate  from  each  State,  Messrs.  Thornton,  Lovell, 
Ellery,  Wolcott,  Duer,  Elmer,  Clymer,  Sykes,  W. 
Smith,  Page,  Burke,  Hayward  and  Brownson.  Be- 
fore this  committee  the  whole  story  of  Schuyler's 
military  command  from  the  beginning  was  threshed 
over.  When  the  report  was  made  to  Congress  on  the 
22d  of  May,  it  was 

159 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

"  RESOLVED,  That  Albany,  Ticonderoga,  Fort 
Stanwix  and  their  dependencies  be  henceforward  con- 
sidered as  forming  the  northern  department,  and  that 
Major-General  Schuyler  be  directed  forthwith  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  northern  department  and  to  take  command 
there." 

Then  Congress  withdrew  its  resolutions  of  censure 
by  informing  him  officially  that  they  "  now  entertain 
the  same  favorable  sentiments  concerning  him  that 
they  had  entertained  before  that  letter  (of  February 
4th)  had  been  received."  At  the  same  time  his  finan- 
cial accounts  with  the  Government  were  examined  by 
the  Board  of  Treasury,  which  discharged  him 
"  of  all  demands  of  the  United  States  against  him." 
A  more  complete  vindication  of  his  official  career, 
and  a  more  mortifying  defeat  for  the  Gates  party 
could  hardly  have  been  devised. 

An  honest  attempt  to  replace  Schuyler  by  a  man 
against  whom  there  was  no  sectional  prejudice  and 
who  had  greater  military  experience  would  have  de- 
served respect  even  from  Schuyler's  friends.  But  that 
Gates  was  a  small  man,  an  inferior  military  officer, 
and  a  self-seeking  schemer,  he  was  himself  to  show 
conclusively.  He  left  Philadelphia  under  orders, 
which  he  had  sought  eagerly  and  which  were  perfectly 
distinct,  to  take  command  at  Ticonderoga.  Every 
one  knew  that  an  invasion  from  Canada  might  take 
place  at  any  time,  and  consequently  that  the  officer  in 
command  at  Ticonderoga  would  have  enough  to  do 

160 


GATES   AT   ALBANY 

there  in  making  preparations  for  it.  But  Gates  ar- 
rived in  Albany  in  the  middle  of  April,  and  in  that 
town,  where  he  had  no  command,  made  himself  at 
home.  Not  a  step  was  taken  toward  Ticonderoga. 
The  mails  to  the  fort  were  infrequent  and  precarious. 
From  Albany  he  could  keep  up  his  campaign  in  Con- 
gress much  more  conveniently,  and  there  he  remained 
directing  the  movements  and  arguments  of  his  friends. 

On  May  ist  Lovell  of  the  New  England  delegation 
wrote  him:  "The  affairs  to  the  northeast  are  in  a 
critical  situation,  for  the  State  of  New  York  in  par- 
ticular. Disaffection,  as  you  see,  is  greatly  prevalent, 
and  those  who  profess  well  to  our  cause  judge  and 
say  that  there  is  but  one  single  man  who  can  keep 
their  subjects  united  against  the  common  enemy,  and 
that  he  stands  in  our  books  as  commander-in-chief 
in  the  northern  department;  that  his  presence  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  in  his  home  quarters  for  their 
immediate  succor  and  service,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
United  States  necessarily  connected;  that  if  he  returns, 
he  is  a  general  without  an  army  or  military  chest, 
and  'why  is  he  thus  disgraced?'  ...  If  you 
are  not  confined  (to  Ticonderoga)  you  entirely 
destroy  the  idea  of  their  chief  to  whom  they  profess 
devotion  unbounded.  How  this  matter  will  be  un- 
tangled, I  cannot  now  exactly  determine,  but  I  expect 
not  entirely  agreeable  to  your  sentiments" 

"Why,"  replied  Gates,  "when  the  argument  in 
support  of  General  Schuyler's  command  was  imposed 

161 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

upon  Congress,  did  not  you,  or  somebody,  say :  'The 
second  post  upon  this  continent  next  campaign  will  be 
at  or  near  Peekskill  ?'  There  General  Schuyler  ought 
to  go  and  command ;  that  will  be  the  curb  in  the  mouth 
of  the  New  York  Tories  and  the  enemy's  army.  He 
will  then  be  near  the  convention,  and  in  the  centre  of 
the  colony,  have  a  military  chest  and  all  the  insignia 
of  office.  This  command  in  honor  could  not  be  re- 
fused without  owning  there  is  something  more  allur- 
ing than  command  to  General  Schuyler,  by  fixing  him 
at  Albany.  By  urging  this  matter  home,  you  would 
have  proved  the  man.  He  would  have  resigned  all 
command,  have  accepted  the  government  of  New 
York,  and  been  fixed  to  a  station  where  he  must  do 
good,  and  which  could  not  interfere  with,  or  prevent, 
any  arrangement  Congress  have  made,  or  may  here- 
after make.  Unhappy  State!  that  has  but  one  man 
in  it  who  can  fix  the  wavering  minds  of  its  inhabitants 
to  the  side  of  freedom!  How  could  you  sit  patiently 
and  uncontradicted  suffer  such  impertinence  to  be 
crammed  down  your  throats?  .  .  .  If  Gen- 
eral Schuyler  is  solely  to  possess  all  power,  all  the 
intelligence,  and  that  particular  favorite,  the  military 
chest,  and  constantly  reside  at  Albany,  I  cannot,  with 
any  peace  of  mind,  serve  at  Ticonderoga." 

In  such  style  did  this  great  general  address  his 
political  supporters.  He  belonged  to  that  type  of 
English  soldier  who  considered  all  men  not  born  in 
England  and  bred  in  her  army  as  necessarily  inferior 

162 


CORRESPONDENCE    OF   GATES 

to  himself.  Washington  was  no  exception  and  came 
in  for  his  share  of  disrespect.  Gates  took  the  time 
from  his  Philadelphia  correspondence  to  send  an 
aide-de-camp  to  Washington  at  Morristown  to  ask 
for  a  supply  of  tents.  Washington  replied  that  his 
army  needed  all  the  tents  they  had,  and  suggested  that 
the  northern  army,  being  stationary,  could  be  pro- 
tected in  huts.  Gates  wrote  back:  "Refusing  this 
army  what  you  have  not  in  your  power  to  bestow,  is 
one  thing;  but  saying  this  army  has  not  the  same 
necessities  as  the  southern  armies,  is  another.  I  can 
assure  your  Excellency  the  northward  requires  tents 
as  much  as  any  service  I  ever  saw."  Then  to  his 
friend  Lovell  he  insinuated  that  Washington  was 
actuated  by  sectional  motives :  "Either  I  am  exceed- 
ingly dull  or  unreasonably  jealous,  if  I  do  not  discover 
by  the  style  and  tenor  of  the  letters  from  Morristown 
how  little  I  have  to  expect  from  thence.  Generals 
are  so  far  like  parsons  they  are  all  for  christening  their 
own  child  first;  but  let  an  impartial  moderating  power 
decide  between  us,  and  do  not  suffer  southern  prejudice 
to  weigh  heavier  in  the  balance  than  the  northern." 

Lovell  gave  signs  of  being  fatigued  by  this  cor- 
respondence, and  on  the  22d  of  May  brought  that 
to  an  end,  together  with  Gates's  hopes,  by  informing 
him  that:  "Misconception  of  past  resolves  and  con- 
sequent jealousies  have  produced  a  definition  of  the 
northern  department,  and  General  Schuyler  is  ordered 
to  take  command  of  it."  Gates's  anger  was  great 

163 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

and  freely  expressed  to  all  who  would  listen.  Colonel 
Wilkinson,  of  his  staff,  who,  like  his  chief,  held  the 
pen  of  a  ready  writer,  wrote  fromTiconderoga :  "The 
manoeuvres  of  Congress  really  baffle  my  penetration; 
by  no  stretch  of  ingenuity  can  I  discern  the  motives 
of  their  late  conduct;  they  have  injured  themselves, 
they  have  insulted  you,  and  by  so  doing  have  been 
guilty  of  the  foulest  ingratitude.  How  base,  how 
pitiful,  or  how  little  deserving  the  name  is  that  Public 
Power  which  individual  consequence  can  intimidate 
or  bribe  to  its  purpose !  It  can  surely  never  sustain, 
unless  ashamed  of  virtue,  the  just  indignation  of 
injured  honesty.  No,  my  general,  every  satisfaction 
which  justice  demands,  with  every  submission  which 
pleases  vanity,  you  will,  you  must,  you  shall,  sooner 
or  later  receive." 

After  all,  what  had  Congress  done?  It  had  sim-ply 
declared  that  Schuyler's  conduct  in  office  had  been 
without  reproach  and  reaffirmed  him  in  his  command 
of  the  northern  department.  Gates's  appointment  to 
the  command  of  Ticonderoga  under  Schuyler  re- 
mained in  force.  His  opportunity  to  display  his  mili- 
tary abilities,  to  be  in  the  forefront  of  a  great  cam- 
paign, to  render  distinguished  services  to  the  State, 
was  assured.  It  was  common  talk  that  Burgoyne  was 
to  lead  a  great  attack  upon  New  York  from  Canada, 
that  such  an  attack  was  imminent.  He  himself  had 
lately  written  to  Lovell:  "Nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  the  enemy  must  first  possess  that  single 

164 


CONDUCT   OF   GATES 

rock  before  they  can  penetrate  the  country.  It  is 
foolish  in  the  extreme  to  believe  the  enemy,  this  year, 
can  form  any  attack  from  the  northward  but  by 
Ticonderoga."  And  yet  that  post  of  honor,  which 
must  bear  the  brunt  of  attack,  was  left  to  take  care 
of  itself  during  the  two  months  that  he  spent  in 
Albany  writing  letters  to  his  political  friends  in 
Philadelphia.  And  now,  that  the  matter  was  settled, 
that  Schuyler  was  to  remain  at  the  head  of  the  north- 
ern department,  and  that  he  was  to  have  command 
of  the  great  fortress  at  the  gateway  of  the  country, 
what  was  his  obvious  duty  and  interest?  Plainly,  to 
repair  to  his  post,  to  apply  all  his  skill  to  making  it 
impregnable,  and  to  make  a  reputation  in  defending 
it  in  the  approaching  struggle.  Such  was  the  course 
natural  to  a  soldier.  Instead  he  sulked,  applied  to 
Schuyler  for  leave  of  absence  and  hastened  to  Phila- 
delphia. On  the  1 8th  of  June,  Roger  Sherman, 
delegate  from  Connecticut,  informed  Congress  that 
General  Gates  was  waiting  at  the  door  for  admittance. 
"For  what  purpose?"  inquired  William  Paca.  "To 
communicate  intelligence  of  importance,"  replied 
Sherman.  Being  admitted,  Gates  took  a  seat,  and  of 
the  ensuing  scene  a  lively  description  is  given  by 
William  Duer: — 

"The  intelligence  he  communicated  was  that  the 
Indians  were  extremely  friendly,  much  delighted  with 
seeing  French  officers  in  our  service,  and  other  com- 
monplace stuff,  which  at  present  I  cannot  recollect. 

.165 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Having  thus  gone  through  the  ostensible  part  of  the 
plan,  he  took  out  of  his  pocket  some  scraps  of  papers 
containing  a  narrative  of  his  birth,  parentage,  and 
education,  life,  character,  and  behavior.  He  in- 
formed the  House  that  he  had  quitted  an  easy  and 
happy  life  to  enter  their  service,  from  a  pure  zeal  for 
the  liberties  of  America;  that  he  had  strenuously 
exerted  himself  in  its  defence;  that  in  some  time  in 
May  last  he  was  appointed  to  a  command  in  the 
northern  department,  and  a  few  days  since,  without 
having  given  any  cause  of  offence,  without  accusation, 
without  trial,  without  hearing,  without  notice,  he  had 
received  a  resolution  by  which  he  was  in  a  most 
disgraceful  manner  superseded  in  his  command.  Here 
his  oration  became  warm,  and  contained  many  reflec- 
tions upon  Congress,  and  malicious  insinuations 
against  Mr.  Duane,  whose  name  he  mentioned,  and 
related  some  conversation  which  he  said  had  passed 
between  him  and  that  gentleman  on  his  way  to  Al- 
bany. Here  Mr.  Duane  rose,  and,  addressing  himself 
to  the  President,  hoped  that  the  General  would  ob- 
serve order,  and  cease  any  personal  applications,  as 
he  could  not,  in  Congress,  enter  into  any  controversy 
with  him  on  the  subject  of  any  former  conversation. 
Mr.  Paca  caught  the  fire,  and  immediately  moved 
that  the  General  be  ordered  to  withdraw.  I  seconded 
the  motion,  observing  that  the  conduct  of  the  General 
was  unbecoming  the  House  to  endure,  and  himself 
to  be  guilty  of.  Mr,  Jerry  Dyson,  Mr.  Sherman  and 

166 


HUMILIATION   OF   GATES 

some  others  of  his  eastern  friends  rose,  and  en- 
deavored to  palliate  his  conduct  and  to  oppose  his 
withdrawing;  on  this  Mr.  Middleton,  Mr.  Burke, 
Colonel  Harrison  and  two  or  three  others  arose,  and 
there  was  a  general  clamor  in  the  House  that  he 
should  immediately  withdraw.  All  this  while  the 
General  stood  upon  the  floor,  and  interposed  several 
times  in  the  debates  which  arose  on  this  subject;  how- 
ever, the  clamor  increasing,  he  withdrew.  A  debate 
then  ensued  concerning  the  propriety  of  the  General's 
conduct,  and  that  of  the  members  who,  contrary  to 
the  rules  of  Parliament,  contended  for  the  propriety 
of  his  staying  after  a  motion  had  been  made  and 
seconded  that  he  should  withdraw.  The  want  of 
candor  in  Mr.  Sherman,  who  asked  for  his  admittance 
on  the  pretence  of  his  giving  the  House  intelligence, 
was  much  inveighed  against,  but  he  bore  it  all  with 
a  true  Connecticut  stoicism.  Congress  at  length  came 
to  the  determination  that  General  Gates  should  not 
again  be  admitted  to  the  floor,  but  that  he  should  be 
informed  that  Congress  was  ready  and  willing  to  hear, 
by  way  of  memorial,  any  grievances  which  he  had  to 
complain  of.  Here  this  matter  ended.  Not,  as  you 
will  observe,  to  his  credit  or  advantage.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  me  to  give  you  an  idea  of  the  unhappy  figure 
which  G.  G.  made  on  this  occasion.  His  manner  was 
ungracious,  and  totally  devoid  of  all  dignity;  his 
delivery  incoherent  and  interrupted  with  frequent 
chasms,  in  which  he  was  peering  over  his  scattered 

167 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

notes;  and  the  tenor  of  his  discourse  was  a  compound 
of  vanity,  folly  and  rudeness.  I  can  assure  you  that 
notwithstanding  his  conduct  has  been  such  as  to  have 
eradicated  from  my  mind  every  sentiment  of  respect 
and  esteem  for  him,  I  felt  for  him  as  a  man,  and  for 
the  honor  of  human  nature  wished  him  to  withdraw 
before  he  had  plunged  himself  into  utter  contempt." 


168 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Burgoyne's  Invasion. — Evacuation  of  Ticonderoga. 
Schuyler's  Military  Operations. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1776  the  British  under  Carleton 
had  ascended  Lake  Champlain  as  far  as  Crown 
Point,  had  destroyed  the  American  fleet  under 
Arnold  and  had  threatened  Ticonderoga.  But,  im- 
pressed by  the  strength  of  that  fortress,  and  fearing 
a  long  siege  protracted  into  the  winter  months,  they 
had  withdrawn  into  Canada.  Carleton's  prudence 
had  disappointed  his  government  and  had  surprised 
the  Americans,  who  were  well  prepared  for  attack. 
That  the  British  should  appear  again  before  Ticon- 
deroga in  the  spring  was  a  natural  expectation. 
Schuyler  had  kept  as  strong  a  garrison  there  as  he 
could  during  the  winter,  and  in  March  he  was  actively 
employed  in  efforts  to  strengthen  it.  He  represented 
to  Congress  the  importance  of  Ticonderoga  and  the 
certainty  of  its  being  attacked.  But  little  result  was 
obtainable  from  Congress.  That  body  had  not  much 
to  give  either  in  men  or  munitions  of  war.  It  was 
doing  what  it  could  for  Washington,  and  hardly  knew 
how  to  meet  the  demands  which  came  from  every 
military  quarter.  Moreover,  the  Board  of  War  was 

i6g 


THE  NORTHERN  DEPARTMENT  AND  BURGOYNE'S 
CAMPAIGN. 

170 


THE   SITUATION   IN   THE   NORTH 

not  inclined  to  pay  much  attention  to  Schuyler' s  rep- 
resentations, because,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  en- 
deavoring to  place  the  military  control  of  the  northern 
department  in  the  hands  of  General  Gates.  At  the 
end  of  March  this  was  actually  done.  Whatever 
Gates's  commission  might  mean,  it  certainly  gave  him 
command  over  Ticonderoga.  Thus  Schuyler  not  only 
found  himself  debarred  from  proceeding  in  his  work 
at  that  fortress,  but  he  was  obliged  to  leave  Albany, 
to  go  to  Philadelphia  and  to  spend  as  much  time  there 
as  Congress  might  require  to  investigate  his  past  con- 
duct and  to  define  his  military  status.  During  the 
most  important  months  of  April  and  May  he  was 
necessarily  at  Philadelphia,  and  without  power  or 
responsibility  in  the  northern  department.  During 
these  months  Gates  was  the  commanding  officer  there. 
But  he,  absorbed  in  his  correspondence  with  his 
friends  in  Congress,  worrying  lest  his  plans  to  super- 
sede Schuyler  should  prove  ineffective,  remained  in- 
active in  Albany,  paid  not  a  single  visit  to  Ticon- 
deroga, and  contented  himself  with  telling  St.  Clair 
to  "call  lustily  for  aid  of  all  kinds,  for  no  general 
ever  lost  by  surplus  numbers  or  overpreparation." 

Thus,  when  Schuyler  returned  to  Albany  on  the 
8th  of  June,  once  more  in  command  of  the  depart- 
ment, he  found  everything  as  he  had  left  it,  except 
that  two  months'  provisions  had  been  consumed  and 
not  replaced.  The  two  precious  months  of  spring 
which  should  have  been  devoted  to  adding  troops, 

171 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

provisions  and  ammunition  to  the  military  resources 
of  his  department  were  gone.  Of  the  magnitude  of 
the  invasion  which  was  impending,  of  the  great  force 
gathering  at  Quebec  under  Burgoyne,  he  knew  noth- 
ing. But  that  Ticonderoga  and  the  province  of  New 
York  were  threatened  by  an  attack  of  some  kind  from 
Canada,  he  felt  sure.  His  incessant  efforts  to  obtain 
more  men  and  supplies  were  rewarded  by  an  addi- 
tion of  five  hundred  men,  which  he  sent  to  St.  Clair 
with  a  good  supply  of  provisions.  He  gave  detailed 
directions  to  St.  Clair  regarding  the  further  fortifying 
of  the  defences  about  Ticonderoga,  and  ordered  him 
to  keep  scouting  parties  in  the  woods  along  the  shores 
of  Lake  Champlain  to  report  any  approach  of  the 
enemy. 

On  the  1 5th  of  June  a  British  spy  was  captured, 
and  from  him  Schuyler  obtained  the  first  definite 
information  of  the  enemy's  plans.  The  spy  reported 
that  General  Burgoyne  was  at  Quebec  and  intended 
to  attack  the  province  of  New  York  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain,  while  Sir  John  Johnson  at  the  head  of 
Canadians  and  Indians  was  to  descend  the  Mohawk 
Valley  and  join  Burgoyne  near  Albany.  Schuyler 
assumed  this  information  to  be  true.  But  he  had  as 
yet  no  idea  of  the  great  size  of  the  invading  force. 
As  far  as  his  knowledge  went  of  troops  then  in  Canada 
he  felt  that  he  could  hold  Ticonderoga  with  the  gar- 
rison already  there.  But  against  the  expedition  of 
Sir  John  Johnson  down  the  Mohawk  Valley,  he  had 

172 


PREPARATIONS   AT   TICONDEROGA 

no  force  to  oppose.  He  wrote  to  Washington  at  once, 
stating  the  circumstances  and  asking  for  re-enforce- 
ment to  defend  the  Mohawk  Valley.  Washington  was 
then  near  Middlebrook,  in  New  Jersey,  opposing 
General  Howe.  Gates  had  arrived  in  camp  from 
Philadelphia,  and  he  assured  Washington  that  there 
was  no  likelihood  of  invasions  of  any  consequence 
from  Canada  at  the  time.  Washington,  in  his  uncer- 
tainty, sent  no  troops,  but  ordered  General  Putnam, 
who  was  encamped  near  the  Hudson  Highlands,  to 
be  ready  to  move  up  the  river  at  a  moment's  notice 
with  four  Massachusetts  regiments. 

Schuyler  then  went  to  Ticonderoga,  and  on  the 
2Oth  of  June,  after  an  inspection  of  the  troops  and 
defences,  held  a  council  of  war,  which  was  attended 
by  Major-General  St.  Clair  and  Brigadier-Generals 
Poor,  Patterson  and  de  Fermoy.  The  situation  was 
far  from  satisfactory,  but  as  the  force  of  the  enemy 
expected  was  unknown  and  much  underestimated,  the 
outlook  was  by  no  means  discouraging.  The  whole 
number  of  troops  was  about  three  thousand,  of  whom 
five  hundred  were  sick  or  otherwise  ineffective.  Many 
were  "actually  barefooted  and  most  of  them  ragged." 
The  requests  for  clothing  which  Schuyler  had  made 
to  Congress  in  March  had  met  with  no  response,  and 
Gates  had  made  no  efforts  to  supply  the  troops  during 
his  two  months  of  command.  There  were  provisions 
enough  for  the  present,  and  a  few  days  later  Schuyler 
sent  up  a  further  supply  which  he  had  collected  from 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

different  points  and  concentrated  at  Fort  George. 
The  men  were  in  good  spirits  and  ready  to  fight.  But 
they  were  too  few  for  the  extent  of  ground  to  be 
covered. 

There  were  two  forts,  one  on  either  side  of  the 
narrow  passage  which  connects  Lakes  George  and 
Champlain.  One  was  the  old  fort  taken  by  Ethan 
Allan  and  Benedict  Arnold  in  May,  1775;  the  other 
a  star  fort  built  in  1776  under  Schuyler's  orders.  The 
two  were  connected  by  a  floating  bridge  four  hundred 
yards  long,  built  of  heavy  timbers  connected  by  iron 
chains  and  supported  by  twenty-two  sunken  piers. 
To  the  north  of  the  bridge  was  a  great  boom  carrying 
a  double  iron  chain  with  links  an  inch  and  a  half 
thick.  The  bridge  was  protected  by  batteries  at  either 
end,  and  with  the  boom  formed  a  barrier  to  the  pas- 
sage of  vessels.  Connected  with  the  two  forts  were 
quite  extensive  outworks,  but  these,  as  well  as  emi- 
nences in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  Sugar  Loaf 
Hill  and  Mt.  Hope,  could  not  be  occupied  for  want 
of  men  and  cannon.  Against  such  an  attack  as  was 
anticipated,  of  perhaps  three  thousand  men,  Ticon- 
deroga  was  considered  defencible.  The  men  on  the 
ground  could  hold  the  two  forts  and  the  bridge,  and 
it  was  resolved  to  defend  them  to  the  last.  As  to 
the  outworks,  and  the  neighboring  hills,  it  was  recog- 
nized that,  unless  re-enforcements  came,  they  could 
not  be  defended.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  sup- 
posed that  the  enemy  would  come  in  sufficient  force 


APPROACH    OF   BURGOYNE 

to  take  possession  of  them.  As  yet  there  was  no  news 
of  the  British,  only  the  knowledge  that  an  attack  from 
Canada  was  to  be  expected. 

Schuyler,  having  the  business  and  safety  of  the 
whole  northern  department  to  provide  for,  then  re- 
turned to  Albany.  Having  received  confirmatory 
information  regarding  the  invasion  of  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  he  took  measures  to  organize  the  Whigs  there, 
and  instructed  Colonel  Nicholas  Herkimer,  who  lived 
near  the  Little  Falls  of  the  Mohawk  and  commanded 
the  Tryon  County  militia,  to  prepare  his  men  for  the 
protection  of  the  western  frontier.  To  Washington 
he  described  his  plans  and  his  needs.  Not  only  was 
he  without  any  adequate  force  to  meet  Sir  John 
Johnson  in  the  west,  but  in  case  of  weakness  or  dis- 
aster at  Ticonderoga,  he  had  no  reserve  to  call  upon. 
In  all  the  northern  department  outside  of  the  forts  at 
Ticonderoga,  there  were  hardly  seven  hundred  men 
under  arms,  and  these  were  dispersed  at  several  posts 
guarding  supplies.  In  this  situation,  on  the  27th  of 
June,  he  received  word  from  St.  Clair  that  the  enemy 
was  approaching.  Burgoyne's  army  was  ascending 
the  lake,  was  already  assembling  at  Crown  Point ;  the 
water  was  dotted  with  vessels  conveying  the  troops 
from  St.  John's,  and  the  wooded  shores  were  swarm- 
ing with  savages  in  war  paint. 

The  army  now  invading  New  York,  of  the  size  and 
objects  of  which  so  little  was  known  to  the  Americans, 
was  intended  by  the  British  ministry  to  be  the  means 

i75 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

of  dividing  the  rebellious  country  into  two  parts, 
rendering  their  co-operation  impracticable,  and  thus 
making  easy  the  separate  conquest  of  New  England 
and  the  southern  colonies.  A  similar  idea  had  pre- 
vailed in  the  military  operations  of  the  year  before, 
when  the  British  had  taken  possession  of  New  York 
City  and  the  lower  Hudson,  and  Carleton  had  made 
his  attack  from  Canada.  But  now  the  plan  was  to 
be  carried  to  completion  by  an  overwhelming  force. 

General  John  Burgoyne  was  a  distinguished  officer 
and  had  done  good  service  in  the  recent  war  in 
Portugal,  causing  Carlyle  to  speak  of  him  as  "the 
Burgoyne  who  begins  in  this  pretty  way  at  Valencia 
d' Alcantara."  He  had  made  himself  well  known  by 
the  development  of  light  cavalry,  and  his  regiment, 
called  Burgoyne's  Light  Horse,  was  a  favorite  feature 
of  the  British  army  and  much  valued  by  the  King. 
He  had  made  a  runaway  match  with  the  daughter  of 
the  Earl  of  Derby,  was  a  courtier,  having  the  ear 
of  George  III.  and  on  the  best  of  terms  with  the 
ministry.  He  had  written  some  military  treatises  of 
value  and  was  always  pleased  to  take  a  pen  in  hand. 
Proclamations  which  he  wrote  for  Gage  at  Boston, 
and  during  this  campaign  for  himself,  were  expressed 
in  the  pompous  manner  of  the  expiring  Johnsonian 
style.  He  was  a  member  of  Parliament.  His  char- 
acter and  intentions  were  good  and  his  disposition 
humane.  While  with  Gage's  army  at  Boston  he  had 
acquired  much  respect  for  the  fighting  qualities  of  the 

176 


BRITISH    PLAN   OF    CAMPAIGN 

rebels,  which  was  not  diminished  during  his  campaign 
with  Carleton  in  the  autumn  of  1776.  When  that 
campaign  was  concluded  he  obtained  leave  to  return 
to  England  for  the  winter,  carrying  with  him  a  plan 
for  the  operations  of  1777  which  coincided  so  nearly 
with  the  ideas  of  the  ministry  that  it  was  readily 
adopted. 

A  powerful  army  was  to  invade  New  York  from 
Canada  by  way  of  the  Sorel  River  and  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  take  Ticonderoga  and  descend  the  Hudson 
Valley  to  Albany.  Another  force  made  up  of  Cana- 
dians and  Indians  under  Sir  John  Johnson  was  to 
approach  from  the  west  by  way  of  Oswego,  reduce 
the  Mohawk  Valley  and  join  the  main  army  at 
Albany.  At  the  same  time  General  Howe,  then  at 
New  York,  was  to  ascend  the  Hudson  and  form  a 
junction  with  the  other  divisions.  If  successful  the 
campaign  would  cause  the  complete  reduction  of  New 
York,  the  division  of  the  colonies  into  two  parts 
unable  to  assist  each  other  and  liable  in  turn  to  over- 
whelming attack.  The  plan  seemed  a  good  one  and, 
if  followed  out  exactly,  gave  every  promise  of  suc- 
cess. There  was  one  alteration  which  Burgoyne 
sought  to  have  made  in  it:  that  in  case  he  found  it 
inexpedient  or  impossible  to  perform  his  part, 
he  should  be  allowed  some  latitude  of  action,  such  as 
to  divert  his  course  into  New  England.  But  the 
ministers  refused  his  request.  The  orders  were  posi- 
tive. Burgoyne  must  march  on  Albany;  Howe  must 

177 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

ascend  the  Hudson  to  meet  him.  Burgoyne,  being 
in  London,  received  and  understood  his  orders.  But, 
extraordinary  to  relate,  Howe  never  received  his. 
That  he  made  no  movement  in  the  direction  of  Albany 
gave  as  much  surprise  to  Washington  as  anxiety  to 
Burgoyne.  The  reason  was  unknown  until  long  after- 
wards, when  Howe's  orders  were  found  unsigned  in 
a  pigeonhole  in  the  War  Office.  There  came  to  light 
among  the  papers  of  Lord  Shelburne  a  memorandum 
stating  that  Lord  George  Germaine,  "  having  among 
other  peculiarities  a  particular  aversion  to  be  put  out 
of  his  way  on  any  occasion,  had  arranged  to  call  at 
his  office  on  his  way  to  the  country  in  order  to  sign 
the  despatches;  but  as  those  addressed  to  Howe  had 
not  been  'fair  copied'  and  he  was  not  disposed  to  be 
balked  of  his  projected  visit  into  Kent,  they  were  not 
signed  then,  and  were  forgotten  on  his  return  to 
town."  Such  being  the  business  methods  of  Lord 
George  Germaine's  office,  the  expedition  against  Al- 
bany was  limited  to  the  attacks  under  Johnson  and 
Burgoyne.  But  even  thus,  it  might  well  seem  over- 
whelming in  numbers  and  strength. 

Burgoyne  arrived  at  Quebec  in  May,  and  trans- 
ports continued  to  land  troops  until  he  had  an  army 
of  nearly  eight  thousand  men,  of  which  about  four 
thousand  were  British  regulars,  three  thousand  Ger- 
mans and  one  thousand  Canadians  and  Indians. 
The  army  was  thoroughly  equipped  and  had  a  fine 
train  of  brass  cannon.  The  soldiers,  both  German 

178 


BURGOYNE   AND   THE    INDIANS 

and  British,  were  veterans ;  and  the  officers  had  been 
selected  for  ability.  Generals  Fraser,  Phillips,  and 
Hamilton,  Majors  Lord  Ackland  and  Balcarres  had 
reputations  founded  on  active  service;  General  Rie- 
desel,  in  command  of  the  Germans,  had  served  with 
credit  through  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Burgoyne 
ordered  the  concentration  of  all  his  forces  at  St. 
John's  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Champlain  on  June  the 
ist,  and  they  had  assembled  there  by  the  i8th,  about 
the  time  that  the  first  news  reached  Schuyler  of  an 
intended  invasion. 

Here  the  army  was  joined  by  four  hundred  In- 
dians, whom,  it  should  be  said,  Burgoyne  employed 
only  because  his  orders  required  it.  With  the  vain 
desire  to  control  their  ferocity  and  to  limit  their  ac- 
tivities to  legitimate  warfare,  he  made  them  an  ad- 
dress in  his  best  Johnsonian  style,  which,  in  the  rough 
version  of  an  Indian  interpreter,  must  have  puzzled 
a  band  of  savages  bent  upon  loot  and  scalps:  "War- 
riors, you  are  free!  Go  forth  in  the  might  of  your 
valor  and  your  cause;  strike  at  the  common  enemies 
of  Great  Britain  and  America,  disturbers  of  public 
order,  peace  and  happiness,  destroyers  of  com- 
merce, parricides  of  the  state.  The  circle  around 
you,  the  chiefs  of  His  Majesty's  European  forces 
and  of  the  Prince's,  his  allies,  esteem  you  as  brothers 
in  the  war.  .  .  .  Be  it  our  task,  from  the  dic- 
tates of  our  religion,  the  laws  of  our  warfare,  and 
the  principles  and  interest  of  our  policy,  to  regulate 

179 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

your  passions  when  they  overbear,  to  point  out 
where  it  is  nobler  to  spare  than  to  revenge,  to  dis- 
criminate the  degrees  of  guilt,  to  suspend  the  up- 
lifted stroke,  to  chastise  and  not  to  destroy.  I  posi- 
tively forbid  bloodshed  whenever  you  are  not  op- 
posed in  arms.  Aged  men,  women,  and  children 
and  prisoners  must  be  held  secure  from  the  knife  or 
hatchet  even  in  the  time  of  actual  conflict.  .  .  . 
In  conformity  and  indulgence  to  your  customs, 
which  have  affixed  an  idea  of  honor  to  such  badges 
of  victory,  you  will  be  allowed  to  take  the  scalps  of 
the  dead  when  killed  by  your  fire  or  in  fair  opposi- 
tion, but  on  no  account  or  pretence  or  subtlety  or 
prevarication  are  they  to  be  taken  from  the 
wounded  or  even  from  the  dying."  Burke  ridiculed 
this  speech  amidst  the  laughter  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  "Suppose,"  he  said,  "that  there  was  a 
riot  on  Tower  Hill.  What  would  the  keeper  of  his 
Majesty's  lions  do?  Would  he  not  fling  open  the 
dens  of  his  wild  beasts,  and  then  address  them  thus : 
*  My  gentle  lions,  my  humane  bears,  my  tender- 
hearted hyenas,  go  forth !  But  I  exhort  you,  as  you 
are  Christians  and  members  of  civilized  society,  to 
take  care  not  to  hurt  any  man,  woman,  or  child." 

From  St.  John's  the  British  army  was  conveyed 
southward  in  boats  to  Crown  Point,  where  Bur- 
goyne  reviewed  them  and  made  an  address  ending 
with  the  words:  "This  army  must  not  retreat."  On 
the  2yth  of  June  the  army  began  its  movement  upon 

180 


INVESTMENT    OF   TICONDEROGA 

Ticonderoga;  the  Indians  and  Canadians  posting 
themselves  in  the  neighboring  woods,  the  regular 
troops  taking  up  commanding  positions  which  the 
Americans,  for  lack  of  men,  had  been  unable  to 
occupy.  By  July  5th  Ticonderoga  was  invested  by 
an  army  of  more  than  seven  thousand  regular 
troops.  Within  the  main  works  were  about  three 
thousand  provincials  indifferently  armed,  but  de- 
termined and  confident.  St.  Clair  had  no  idea  of 
the  size  of  the  army  which  was  attacking  him.  On 
July  3d  he  wrote  to  General  Heath:  "They  have  ap- 
proached to  within  three  miles  of  Ticonderoga, 
where  they  are  intrenching  themselves  and  also  are 
throwing  a  boom  across  the  lake.  This  does  not 
convey  with  it  an  idea  that  they  have  any  great 
force." 

On  the  2yth  of  June  Schuyler  was  in  Albany  pro- 
viding for  the  defence  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  when 
he  received  news  from  St.  Clair  that  a  British  force 
had  arrived  at  Crown  Point.  He  sent  off  imme- 
diate expresses  to  Washington,  to  the  governors  of 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire, 
and  to  the  Committees  of  Berkshire  and  New  York, 
stating  that  an  invasion  was  actually  in  progress  and 
begging  for  re-enforcements.  It  was  the  great  dif- 
ficulty of  Schuyler's  situation  that  he  belonged  to  a 
colony  sparse  in  population,  of  which  the  southern 
portion  was  already  in  possession  of  the  enemy  and 
the  remainder  too  thinly  settled  to  furnish  troops. 

181 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

He  must  depend  for  soldiers  upon  the  neighboring 
colonies,  and  they  would  not  withdraw  men  from 
the  fields  until  the  danger  was  known  to  be  immi- 
nent. Thus,  while  Ticonderoga  was  being  attacked, 
weeks  must  ensue  before  troops  could  be  gathered  in 
New  England  and  forwarded  to  him. 

When  Washington  received  Schuyler's  informa- 
tion that  the  British  had  occupied  Crown  Point  he 
had  a  difficult  problem  to  solve  before  he  could 
think  of  sending  help.  Howe  was  evidently  about 
to  make  some  movement.  His  army  had  left  Perth 
Amboy  and  had  camped  on  the  shores  of  New  York 
Bay.  Howe  himself  had  made  his  headquarters  on 
Staten  Island,  off  which  the  fleet  had  anchored.  He 
was  going  somewhere ;  was  it  North  or  South  ?  The 
movement  against  Ticonderoga  might  be  a  feint, 
while  the  main  British  army  in  Canada  proceeded  by 
sea  to  join  Howe.  If  Burgoyne  were  really  invad- 
ing New  York  in  force,  Howe  would  surely  ascend 
the  Hudson  to  join  him.  If  Washington  should 
move  up  the  Hudson  ahead  of  Howe,  the  latter 
might  march  southward  upon  Philadelphia.  Wash- 
ington could  do  nothing  but  watch  Howe  and  go 
where  he  went.  At  present  all  he  could  do  for 
Schuyler  was  to  order  some  troops  then  at  Peekskill 
to  march  to  Albany.  "If  we  can  keep  General 
Howe  below  the  Highlands,"  he  wrote  to  Schuyler 
July  2d,  "I  think  their  schemes  will  be  entirely  baf- 
fled." 

IS2 


TICONDEROGA    EVACUATED 

During  those  few  days  in  Albany,  Schuyler  was 
absorbed  in  providing  for  the  defence  of  the  west- 
ern frontier,  whence  came  alarming  news.  Savages 
were  scalping  settlers  and  burning  houses  along  the 
border  from  Fort  Stanwix  to  the  Susquehanna 
River.  The  threatened  invasion  from  Oswego 
under  Johnson  had  spread  terror  through  Tryon 
County,  the  inhabitants  of  which  made  constant  ap- 
peals for  aid.  Through  Colonels  Van  Schaick  and 
Herkimer,  Schuyler  organized  the  Whigs  and  sent 
them  arms.  He  urged  the  patriot  inhabitants  to 
join  in  efforts  for  their  own  protection,  and  assured 
them  of  Continental  support.  "  If  we  act  with  vigor 
and  spirit,"  he  wrote  to  Herkimer,  "we  have  noth- 
ing to  fear,  but  if  once  despondency  takes  place  the 
worst  consequences  are  to  be  apprehended." 

While  thus  providing  for  the  various  needs  of  his 
department,  Schuyler  was  awaiting  impatiently  the 
arrival  of  the  promised  troops  from  Peekskill,  for 
whom  he  had  sent  sloops  down  the  river.  There 
was  no  sign  of  them  on  the  5th.  "If  they  do  not 
arrive  by  to-morrow,"  he  wrote  to  Congress,  "I 
shall  go  on  without  them,  and  do  the  best  I  can  with 
the  militia."  They  did  not  arrive,  and  Schuyler  set 
out  alone  for  Ticonderoga.  When  between  Sara- 
toga and  Stillwater  he  was  met  by  Colonel  Hay 
bearing  the  astounding  and  incomprehensible  news 
that  St.  Clair  had  evacuated  Ticonderoga  with  all 
his  men. 

183 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

Schuyler  knew  that  the  fortress  was  insufficiently 
manned;  that  its  capture  by  a  superior  force  was 
only  too  possible.  But  that  it  should  have  been  evac- 
uated without  a  struggle  was  beyond  explanation. 
And  St.  Clair  had  disappeared  absolutely.  Colonel 
Hay  could  not  tell  where  he  was.  Several  days 
elapsed  before  any  word  was  received  from  him. 
Presuming  that  the  American  army  must  have  pro- 
ceeded southward  Schuyler  despatched  couriers  into 
the  woods  with  orders  for  St.  Clair  or  the  officer 
in  command  to  join  him  at  Fort  Edward  on  the 
Hudson  River,  south  of  Lake  George.  There  he 
went  himself  at  once  and  established  headquarters. 
To  Washington,  to  Congress,  and  to  the  Committee 
of  Safety  he  communicated  the  bare  fact  of  the 
evacuation,  for  which  as  yet  he  could  give  no  reason. 

The  news  of  the  loss  of  Ticonderoga  spread  with 
great  rapidity  through  the  country.  Unaccom- 
panied as  it  was  by  any  explanation,  the  worst  con- 
struction was  put  upon  it  for  both  St.  Clair  and 
Schuyler.  Accusations  of  treachery  were  loudly 
made  and  readily  believed.  All  of  northern  New 
York  was  in  consternation,  even  the  people  of  Al- 
bany preparing  for  flight.  The  militia,  which 
Schuyler  had  been  organizing,  lost  heart  and  melted 
away.  In  New  England  prevailed  an  intense  feel- 
ing of  anger  and  discouragement.  Pierre  Van  Cort- 
landt  wrote  to  General  Putnam :  "The  evacuation  of 

184 


EFFECT   OF   THE    NEWS 

Ticonderoga  appears  to  the  Council  highly  reprehen- 
sible, and  it  gives  them  great  pain  to  find  that  a 
measure  so  absurd  and  probably  criminal  should  be 
imputed  to  the  direction  of  General  Schuyler,  in 
whose  zeal,  vigilance,  and  integrity  the  Council  re- 
pose the  highest  confidence."  On  July  i8th  Wash- 
ington wrote  to  Schuyler:  "I  will  not  condemn  or 
even  pass  a  censure  upon  any  officer  unheard;  but  I 
think  it  a  duty  which  General  St.  Clair  owes  to  his 
own  character  to  insist  upon  an  opportunity  of  giv- 
ing the  reasons  for  his  sudden  evacuation  of  a  post 
which,  but  a  few  days  before,  he,  by  his  own  letters, 
thought  tenable,  at  least  for  a  while.  People  at  a 
distance  are  apt  to  form  wrong  conjectures;  and  if 
General  St.  Clair  had  good  reason  for  the  step  he 
has  taken  I  think  the  sooner  he  justifies  himself  the 
better.  I  have  mentioned  these  matters  because  he 
may  not  know  that  his  conduct  is  looked  upon  as 
very  unaccountable  by  all  ranks  of  people  in  this 
part  of  the  country.  If  he  is  reprehensible,  the  pub- 
lic have  an  undeniable  right  to  call  for  that  justice 
which  is  due  from  an  officer  who  betrays  or  gives  up 
his  post  in  an  unwarrantable  manner." 

Schuyler  found  himself  the  object  of  the  most 
violent  personal  attacks.  In  New  England  espe- 
cially, he  was  openly  accused  of  having  treacher- 
ously delivered  the  fortress  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  He  wrote  to  Jay:  "Those  that  form  un- 
favorable conclusions  from  my  absence  from  Ticon- 

185 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

deroga  ought  to  know  that  I  hastened  from  it  in 
order  to  provide  for  its  safety,  to  throw  in  a  greater 
quantity  of  provisions  and  those  reinforcements  of 
men  which  I  had  applied  for;  that  I  had  everything 
to  do;  nothing,  literally  nothing,  having  been  done 
whilst  the  department  was  committed  to  General 
Gates's  direction."  "I  might  easily  have  exculpated 
myself  from  the  many  heavy  charges  which  have 
been  brought  against  me,"  he  wrote  to  Congress,  "if 
I  had  dared  to  venture  a  publication,  which  must 
necessarily  have  contained  extracts  from  my  letters 
to  Congress,  to  His  Excellency  General  Washington, 
and  to  the  general  officers  under  my  command;  but 
as  such  a  step  might  have  prejudiced  the  public,  I 
have  hitherto  waived  it,  hoping  that  a  little  time  will 
discover  that  I  have  labored  under  unmerited  cal- 
umny." He  wrote  to  Washington:  "I  will,  how- 
ever, go  on  smiling  with  contempt  on  the  malice  of 
my  enemies,  doing  my  duty,  and  attempting  to  de- 
serve your  esteem,  which  will  console  me  for  the 
abuse  that  thousands  may  unjustly  throw  out  against 
me." 

Amid  the  general  blame  and  clamor  it  is  not 
difficult  to  imagine  the  state  of  feeling  in  Congress 
and  the  effect  on  Schuyler's  reputation  and  pros- 
pects. The  Gates  party,  whose  schemes  had  so  late- 
ly come  to  naught,  now  felt  itself  justified,  and 
seized  so  favorable  an  opportunity  to  carry  out  its 
defeated  purpose.  John  Adams  exclaimed:  "We 

186 


CAUSE    OF   THE    EVACUATION 

shall  never  be  able  to  defend  a  post  until  we  shoot  a 
general!"  Samuel  Adams  wrote  to  Richard  Henry 
Lee:  "I  confess  it  is  no  more  than  I  expected  when 
he  (Schuyler)  was  again  appointed  to  the  command 
there.  .  .  .  Gates  is  the  man  of  my  choice." 
The  news  of  the  evacuation  of  Ticonderoga,  at  first 
unexplained,  and  when  explained  not  well  under- 
stood as  a  military  necessity,  gave  to  the  New  Eng- 
land delegation  the  excuse  they  needed  to  put  their 
unworthy  favorite  in  Schuyler's  place.  Let  us  see 
what  had  caused  this  event,  so  discouraging  to  the 
country,  so  injurious  at  the  time  to  the  reputation  of 
St.  Clair,  so  unjustly  fatal  to  Schuyler's  military 
career. 

Ticonderoga,  while  a  very  strong  position  if  fully 
manned,  was  untenable  by  a  force  insufficient  to  de- 
fend its  whole  extent.  The  narrow  pass  through 
which  flowed  the  waters  of  the  lake  was  surrounded 
by  eminences  which  commanded  the  main  works  be- 
low and  which  should  have  been  occupied  by  bat- 
teries. In  the  previous  assaults  on  Ticonderoga  the 
contending  forces  were  not  possessed  of  cannon  of 
long  range.  Thus  these  distant  eminences  had  been 
useless,  and  the  struggle  had  occurred  below  at  the 
forts  near  the  water.  The  Americans  under  St. 
Clair  were  too  few  to  man  more  than  the  lower 
forts.  There  were  several  outlying  works  recently 
constructed,  which  they  had  been  obliged  to  leave 
empty.  To  defend  the  forts  and  outworks  and  to 

187 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

keep  on  the  neighboring  hills  a  force  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  enemy  from  taking  possession  of  them 
would  have  required  between  six  and  eight  thousand 
men.  St.  Clair  had  only  about  three  thousand, 
enough  to  defend  the  lower  forts  where  they  were 
concentrated.  That  St.  Clair  was  hopeful  of  his 
ability  to  hold  the  position  was  due  to  his  ignorance 
of  the  size  of  the  attacking  army,  and  especially  of 
the  long  range  of  their  guns. 

Three-quarters  of  a  mile  south  of  Ticonderoga 
rises  six  hundred  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  lake 
a  rocky  crag  then  called  Sugar  Loaf  Hill.  The 
practised  military  eye  of  General  Phillips  took  in  the 
position.  He  knew  that  some  of  his  fine  guns  could 
carry  from  that  crag  into  the  forts.  That  it  was 
inaccessible  for  cannon  he  did  not  believe.  "  Where 
a  goat  can  go,"  he  said,  "a  man  can  go;  and  where 
a  man  can  go,  he  can  haul  up  a  gun."  Working  at 
night  Phillips  placed  a  battery  on  the  top  of  Sugar 
Loaf  Hill,  which  he  renamed  Mount  Defiance.  On 
the  morning  of  July  5th  the  American  army  saw  the 
British  artillery  frowning  above  them.  The  red- 
coats on  Mount  Defiance  could  look  down  into  the 
American  works  and  count  the  men.  Their  guns 
could  rake  the  forts.  Ticonderoga  had  become  a 
trap  in  which  the  American  army  was  caught  and 
could  be  destroyed.  St.  Clair  saw  that  his  position 
was  lost.  His  duty  now  was  to  save  his  army. 

188 


TRUMBULL'S   ACCOUNT 

That  night  he  marched  it  out  of  the  forts  and  south- 
ward into  the  forest.  The  next  day  the  British  flag 
was  flying  in  triumph  over  Ticonderoga,  while  a 
strong  detachment  pursued  the  Americans  up  Lake 
George  and  through  the  woods.  The  difficulties  of 
the  retreat  and  of  communication  made  it  impossible 
for  St.  Clair  to  inform  Schuyler  of  what  had  hap- 
pened or  of  his  line  of  march  until  several  days  had 
passed.  That  St.  Clair,  under  the  circumstances, 
had  done  his  duty  as  a  prudent  officer,  was  in  time 
universally  acknowledged.  Of  this  unfortunate  and 
final  appearance  of  Ticonderoga  in  our  military  an- 
nals so  interesting  an  account  is  given  in  the  autobiog- 
raphy of  John  Trumbull,  the  artist,  that  it  may  be 
repeated  here.  Trumbull  was  an  aide  on  Gates's 
staff  when  the  latter  was  in  command  at  Ticonder- 
oga in  the  previous  autumn: 

"The  position  of  our  army  extended  from 
Mount  Independence  on  the  right  and  east  side  of 
the  lake  to  the  old  French  lines  on  the  west  forming 
our  left,  protected  at  various  points  by  redoubts  and 
batteries,  on  which  were  mounted  more  than  a  hun- 
dred pieces  of  heavy  cannon.  After  some  time  it 
was  seen  that  the  extreme  left  was  weak  and  might 
easily  be  turned;  a  post  was  therefore  established  on 
an  eminence,  nearly  half  a  mile  in  advance  of  the 
old  French  lines,  which  was  called  Mount  Hope. 
Thus  our  entire  position  formed  an  extensive  cres- 
cent, of  which  the  centre  was  a  lofty  eminence,  called 

189  " 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

Mount  Defiance,  the  termination  of  that  mountain 
ridge  which  separates  Lake  George  from  Lake 
Champlain,  and  which  rises  precipitously  from  the 
waters  of  the  latter  to  a  height  of  six  hundred  feet. 
The  outlet  of  Lake  George  enters  Champlain  at  the 
foot  of  this  eminence,  and  separates  it  from  the  old 
French  fort  and  lines  of  Ticonderoga.  This  im- 
portant position  had  hitherto  been  neglected  by  the 
engineers  of  all  parties,  French,  English,  and  Amer- 
ican. 

"I  had  for  some  time  regarded  this  eminence  as 
completely  overruling  our  entire  position.  It  was 
said,  indeed,  to  be  at  too  great  a  distance  to  be  dan- 
gerous; but  by  repeated  observation  I  had  satisfied 
my  mind  that  the  distance  was  by  no  means  so  great 
as  was  generally  supposed,  and  at  length,  at  the 
table  of  General  Gates,  where  the  principal  officers 
of  the  army  were  present,  I  ventured  to  advance  the 
new  and  heretical  opinion  that  our  position  was  bad 
and  untenable,  as  being  overlooked  in  all  its  parts  by 
this  hill.  I  was  ridiculed  for  advancing  such  an 
extravagant  idea.  I  persisted,  however,  and  as  the 
truth  could  not  be  ascertained  by  argument,  by  theory, 
or  by  ridicule,  I  requested  and  obtained  the  general's 
permission  to  ascertain  it  by  experiment.  General 
(then  Major)  Stevens  was  busy  at  the  north  point 
of  Mount  Independence  in  examining  and  proving 
cannon;  I  went  over  to  him  on  the  following  morn- 
ing, and  selected  a  long,  double-fortified  French 

190 


TRUMBULL'S   ACCOUNT 

brass  gun  (a  twelve-pounder),  which  was  loaded 
with  the  proof  charge  of  best  powder  and  double 
shotted.  When  I  desired  him  to  elevate  this  gun  so 
that  it  should  point  at  the  summit  of  Mount  Defi- 
ance he  looked  surprised,  and  gave  his  opinion  that 
the  shot  would  not  cross  the  lake.  'That  is  what  I 
wish  to  ascertain,  Major,'  was  my  answer;  'I  believe 
they  will,  and  you  will  direct  your  men  to  look 
sharp,  and  we,  too,  will  keep  a  good  look-out;  if  the 
shot  drop  in  the  lake  their  splash  will  easily  be  seen; 
if,  as  I  expect,  they  reach  the  hill,  we  shall  know  it 
by  the  dust  of  the  impression  which  they  will  make 
upon  its  rocky  face.'  The  gun  was  fired,  and  the 
shot  were  plainly  seen  to  strike  at  more  than  half  the 
height  of  the  hill.  I  returned  to  headquarters  and 
made  my  triumphant  report;  and  after  dinner  re- 
quested the  general  (Gates)  and  officers  who  were 
with  him  to  walk  out  upon  the  glacis  of  the  old 
French  fort  where  I  had  ordered  a  common  six- 
pound  field  gun  to  be  placed  in  readiness.  This  was, 
in  their  presence,  loaded  with  the  ordinary  charge, 
pointed  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  when  fired  it  was 
seen  that  the  shot  struck  near  the  summit.  Thus  the 
truth  of  the  new  doctrine  was  demonstrated;  but 
still  it  was  insisted  upon  that  this  summit  was  inac- 
cessible to  the  enemy.  This  also  I  denied,  and  again 
resorted  to  experiment.  General  Arnold,  Colonel 
Wayne,  and  several  other  active  officers  accom- 
panied me  in  the  general's  barge,  which  landed  us  at 

191 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

the  foot  of  the  hill,  where  it  was  most  precipitous 
and  rocky,  and  we  clambered  to  the  summit  in  a 
short  time.  The  ascent  was  difficult  and  laborious, 
but  not  impracticable,  and  when  we  looked  down 
upon  the  outlet  of  Lake  George  it  was  obvious  to 
all  that  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  driving  up  a 
loaded  carriage. 

Our  present  position  required  at  least  ten  thou- 
sand men  and  a  hundred  pieces  of  artillery  for  its 
doubtful  security.  I  assumed  that  it  would  be  found 
impossible  for  the  government,  in  future  campaigns, 
to  devote  so  great  a  force  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
single  post;  and  as  there  was  no  road  on  either  side 
of  the  lake  by  which  an  enemy  could  penetrate  into 
the  country  south,  he  must  necessarily  make  use  of 
this  route  by  water;  and  as  the  summit  of  Mount 
Defiance  looked  down  upon  and  completely  com- 
manded the  narrow  parts  of  both  the  lakes,  a  small 
but  strong  post  there,  commanded  by  an  officer  who 
would  maintain  it  to  the  last  extremity,  would  be  a 
more  effectual  and  essentially  a  less  expensive  de- 
fence of  this  pass  than  all  our  present  extended 
lines.  .  .  . 

"The  events  of  the  succeeding  campaign  demon- 
strated the  correctness  of  my  views;  for  General  St. 
Clair  was  left  to  defend  Ticonderoga  without  any 
essential  addition  to  the  garrison  which  had  been 
placed  under  his  command  by  General  Gates  in  the 
preceding  November,  because  the  Congress  could 

192 


RESPONSIBILITY   OF   GATES 

not  spare  more  men  or  means;  so  that,  when  Gen- 
eral Burgoyne  presented  himself  at  Three-Mile 
Point  no  opposition  could  be  hazarded  to  his  move- 
ments, and  instead  of  assaulting  the  works  (as  had 
been  formerly  done  by  General  Abercrombie  in 
1757),  he  silently  turned  the  left  of  the  position, 
crossed  the  outlet  of  Lake  George,  and  established  a 
battery  of  heavy  guns  on  the  summit  of  Mount  De- 
fiance, the  shot  from  which  plunged  into  the  old 
French  fort  and  lines,  and  reached  all  points  of 
Mount  Independence,  so  that,  as  I  had  predicted, 
the  whole  position  became  untenable  and  was  im- 
mediately abandoned.  General  St.  Clair  became 
the  object  of  furious  denunciations,  whereas  he  mer- 
ited thanks  for  having  saved  a  part  of  the  devoted 
garrison,  who  subsequently  formed  the  nucleus  of 
that  force  by  which,  in  the  course  of  the  campaign, 
General  Burgoyne  was  ultimately  baffled,  and  com- 
pelled to  surrender  his  victorious  army  by  the  con- 
vention of  Saratoga." 

Schuyler  had  his  share  in  the  responsibility  for  the 
neglect  to  secure  Mount  Defiance,  but  the  respon- 
sibility of  Gates  was  far  greater.  He  was  in  com- 
mand at  Ticonderoga  when  the  subject  was  so  for- 
cibly called  to  his  attention  by  Trumbull.  Yet  he 
was  satisfied  with  casting  ridicule  upon  the  discovery 
of  a  young  American  officer.  During  these  last  two 
months,  April  and  May  of  1777,  while  he  had  the 
independent  command  of  Ticonderoga,  and  should 

193 


7        V 

LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

have  been  there  examining  and  improving  its  de- 
fences, he  had  remained  in  Albany,  writing  to  his 
friends  in  Congress  and  scheming  to  supplant  his 
fellow-officer.  And  yet  this  was  the  man  who  was 
now  to  profit  by  the  misfortune  which  was  largely 
the  result  of  his  own  negligence  and  want  of  judg- 
ment. 

When  St.  Clair  left  Ticonderoga  he  had  no  boats 
to  convey  his  army  up  the  lake,  and  so  struck  off  to 
the  southeast  through  the  woods,  where  he  would  be 
out  of  the  way  of  a  force  pursuing  by  water.  When 
his  rear  guard  was  at  Hubbardton,  a  few  miles 
south  of  Ticonderoga  and  east  of  Lake  George,  it 
was  attacked  by  General  Fraser  and  a,  thousand 
men.  In  this  engagement  the  Americans  were  at 
first  successful  and  beat  back  the  British.  But  a  re- 
inforcement of  Hessians  coming  up  under  Riedesel, 
the  Americans  retreated,  leaving  about  three  hun- 
dred killed  and  wounded.  The  pursuit,  however, 
had  been  so  checked  that  St.  Clair  joined  Schuyler 
at  Fort  Edward  on  the  izth  without  further  casual- 
ties. The  long  march  through  the  woods  had  pre- 
vented his  sending  an  earlier  account  of  himself  to 
Schuyler,  who  had  been  much  blamed  for  not  know- 
ing the  situation  of  this  part  of  the  army.  The  re- 
treating troops  had  saved  nothing  but  their  arms 
and  clothing.  They  were  much  discouraged  by  the 
hardship  of  the  flight,  and  on  the  way  many  militia- 
men had  deserted  and  gone  home.  Harvest  time 

194 


THE   ARMY   AT    FORT   EDWARD 

was  approaching.  As  long  as  victory  seemed  prob- 
able the  militia  were  willing  to  remain  and  fight. 
But,  disheartened  by  this  reverse,  two  complete  New 
England  regiments  went  off  in  a  body.  It  was  not, 
perhaps,  a  technical  military  desertion.  The  terms 
of  enlistment  were  so  loose  that  the  men  could  al- 
most choose  the  day  when  they  saw  fit  to  declare  their 
time  to  be  up.  But  these  desertions  left  St.  Clair  not 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  men. 

At  Fort  Edward,  Schuyler  found  himself  in  a 
position  of  extreme  difficulty.  Including  five  hun- 
dred men  under  Nixon  who  had  at  last  arrived  from 
Peekskill,  militia  whom  he  had  collected  himself, 
and  St.  Clair's  troops,  his  army  numbered  about 
three  thousand.  They  were  diminishing  rather  than 
increasing.  While  the  continental  troops  remained 
faithful,  the  militia  were  constantly  dropping  off. 
There  was  almost  no  artillery.  Scouts  reported  the 
enemy  to  be  approaching  by  the  lake  and  by  land — 
an  army  of  six  thousand  veterans,  furnished  with 
fine  artillery  and  elated  by  an  easy  success.  While 
Frazer  and  Riedesel  were  working  southward 
through  the  woods  on  the  trail  of  St.  Clair,  Bur- 
goyne  with  the  rest  of  his  army  advanced  in  the 
same  direction  by  the  lake.  Within  two  days  after 
Schuyler  had  reached  Fort  Edward,  twenty  miles 
south  of  Lake  George,  the  enemy  was  at  Skeensbor- 
ough,  east  of  the  lake,  and  rapidly  approaching  Fort 
George  at  its  head.  On  July  loth,  two  days  before 

195 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

St.  Clair  arrived,  Burgoyne's  army  was  distant  from 
Schuyler  only  twenty  miles. 

In  the  neighborhood  south  of  Lake  George  were 
three  so-called  forts,  but  rather  fortified  store- 
houses: Fort  George  at  the  head  of  the  lake,  Fort 
Anne  to  the  southeast,  and  Fort  Edward  twenty 
miles  south  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Hudson.  The 
latter  was  the  largest  and  the  best  protected,  but 
yet  was  not  to  be  considered  defencible  against 
such  an  army  as  Burgoyne's.  The  Marquis  de 
Chastellux,  who  visited  it  soon  after,  said  that  it 
could  be  taken  easily  by  five  hundred  men  with  four 
siege  guns.  Forts  George  and  Anne  were  depots 
for  stores  with  small  garrisons  to  guard  them. 
Schuyler  burned  these  two  forts,  added  their  garri- 
sons to  that  of  Fort  Edward,  and  removed  the 
stores  to  the  same  place.  He  thus  secured  a  supply 
of  provisions  ample  for  his  small  army  at  present, 
and  concentrated  all  his  men  in  his  strongest  posi- 
tion. The  problem  of  getting  provisions  was  al- 
ready becoming  serious  for  Burgoyne  and  British 
detachments  soon  after  attacked  Forts  George  and 
Anne  only  to  find  them  empty.  The  news  that  these 
two  positions  had  been  abandoned  was  received  at 
Philadelphia  with  unjust  and  ignorant  blame. 
Schuyler,  it  was  said,  had  given  up  two  more  forts 
to  the  British.  Instead  of  which  he  had  saved  the 
provisions  from  two  store-houses. 

Schuyler's  correspondence  at  this  juncture  shows 
196 


HIS    MEASURES    FOR    DEFENCE 

constantly  his  appreciation  of  the  most  important 
work  before  him,  of  the  only  military  policy  which 
could  avert  defeat.  That  policy  was  to  delay  the 
British  advance.  If  Burgoyne  could  continue  his 
rapid  progress  southward  there  was  no  force  now 
between  him  and  Albany  capable  of  preventing  his 
arrival  there.  But  time  must  bring  re-enforcements 
to  the  American  army.  When  the  people  of  the 
river  counties  of  New  York  and  Western  New  Eng- 
land realized  that  Burgoyne  with  his  German  mer- 
cenaries and  Indians  was  actually  upon  them,  they 
would  leave  their  fields  and  homes  and  help  defend 
them.  Assistance,  too,  would  surely  come  from  the 
Continental  army  near  New  York.  Besides,  and 
quite  as  important  a  fact,  Schuyler  realized  that  the 
longer  Burgoyne  was  delayed  the  more  impossible 
would  it  be  for  him  to  keep  his  army  in  provisions. 
What  he  possessed  he  had  brought  from  Canada 
and  captured  at  Ticonderoga.  But  the  supply  was 
limited;  it  could  not  last  long.  The  great  dis- 
tance from  his  base  in  Canada  made  that  resource 
impracticable.  Moreover,  his  communication  with 
that  base,  through  the  long  stretch  of  devious  water- 
way and  forest,  could  be,  and  before  long  was,  cut 
off.  The  evacuation  of  Ticonderoga  and  the  pos- 
session of  boats  on  the  lake  had  made  it  easy  for  the 
British  to  reach  Fort  George,  only  twenty  miles 
from  their  insignificant  enemy.  But  Schuyler  knew 
so  well  the  physical  geography  of  those  twenty  miles 

197 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

that  he  felt  able  to  hold  off  Burgoyne  for  a  long 
time.  The  land  was  covered  by  heavy  forest,  and 
intersected  by  streams  which  formed  frequent 
swamps.  Several  roads  existed,  rough,  but  practi- 
cable. Schuyler  sent  a  thousand  men  up  these  roads 
with  axes.  The  trees  were  cut  on  either  side  so  that 
they  fell  across  each  other,  with  trunks  and  branches 
intersecting,  till  a  tangle  was  formed  which  a  man 
could  hardly  penetrate.  Every  bridge  was  de- 
stroyed and  the  streams  choked  with  fallen  trees. 
The  success  of  Schuyler's  operations  was  shown  by 
the  fact  that  while  the  British  army  had  been  only 
four  days  from  Ticonderoga  to  the  head  of  Lake 
George,  they  required  twenty  days  of  the  hard- 
est work  to  reach  Fort  Edward,  only  twenty  miles 
further.  And  these  twenty  days  were  of  decisive 
importance.  They  gave  to  the  American  re-enforce- 
ments the  time  to  collect.  And  they  saw  the  begin- 
ning of  Burgoyne's  fatal  difficulty,  the  want  of  sub- 
sistence for  his  men. 

Although  Schuyler's  prompt  action  in  this  emer- 
gency had  obtained  the  delay  so  vital  to  the  Ameri- 
can cause,  the  situation  at  Fort  Edward  might  well 
have  seemed  hopeless.  While  he  sought  to  en- 
courage the  army  by  promises  of  speedy  help,  he 
could  not  conceal  from  Congress  and  from  Wash- 
ington the  true  state  of  affairs.  "  Desertions  pre- 
vail," he  wrote  to  the  latter,  "  and  disease  gains 
ground;  nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  for  we  have 

198 


CONDITION   OF   HIS   ARMY 

neither  tents,  houses,  barns,  boards,  or  any  shelter, 
except  a  little  brush.  Every  rain  that  falls — and 
we  have  it  In  great  abundance — wets  the  men  to  the 
skin.  We  are  besides  in  great  want  of  every  kind 
of  necessaries,  provisions  excepted.  Camp  kettles 
we  have  so  few  that  we  cannot  afford  above  one  to 
twenty  men."  There  were  thirty  pieces  of  cannon 
in  the  fort,  but  no  carriages  for  them.  Nixon  had 
brought  up  two  from  Peekskill,  which  formed  the 
available  artillery  in  case  of  a  movement.  "  I  have 
indeed  written  to  Springfield,"  continued  Schuyler, 
"  for  the  cannon  which  were  there.  But  the  an- 
swer I  got  was  that  they  were  all  ordered  another 
way.  I  have  also  written  to  Boston,  not  that  I 
expect  anything  will  be  sent  me,  but  that  I  may 
stand  justified;  for  I  have  never  yet  been  able  to 
get  much  of  anything  from  thence.  In  this  situa- 
tion I  can  only  look  up  to  your  Excellency  for  re- 
lief; and  permit  me  to  entreat  you  to  send  me  a  re- 
enforcement  of  troops  and  such  a  supply  of  artillery, 
ammunition,  and  every  other  necessary  (except  pro- 
visions and  powder)  which  an  army  ought  to  have, 
if  it  can  possibly  be  spared." 

Washington  replied  that  to  detach  any  consider- 
able number  of  men  from  his  own  army  would  be 
to  weaken  himself  too  much.  Howe's  troops  were 
partly  embarked  upon  the  fleet  off  Staten  Island, 
whether  to  ascend  the  Hudson  to  Burgoyne's  assist- 
ance or  to  proceed  southward  could  not  be  learned. 

199 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Howe  might  suddenly  re-land,  and  Washington  must 
watch  him  with  all  the  force  at  his  command.  The 
most  that  he  could  do  at  present  was  to  hold  Glov- 
er's brigade  in  readiness  to  march  northward  if  cir- 
cumstances permitted. 

But  he  was  able  to  assist  Schuyler  in  another  way. 
The  latter  had  written  regarding  the  desertions 
which  were  weakening  the  army  at  Fort  Edward. 
Some  of  these  were  due  to  the  privations  endured 
since  the  loss  of  Ticonderoga.  But  another  cause 
contributed  much  to  the  depletion  of  the  army.  It 
was  nearly  harvest  time.  The  militia  were  anxious 
to  return  home  to  gather  crops;  they  were  unwilling 
to  make  sacrifices  for  a  colony  not  their  own,  and 
the  terms  of  enlistment  were  too  loose  to  hold  them. 
As  they  were  resolved  to  go,  Schuyler  made  the  best 
terms  he  could  by  obtaining  the  promise  that  one- 
half  would  remain  for  three  weeks  longer  if  the 
other  half  were  discharged.  Bancroft  blames 
Schuyler  for  this  action,  saying:  "There  could  be 
no  hope  of  a  successful  campaign,  but  with  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  New  England;  yet  Schuyler 
gave  leave  for  one-half  of  its  militia  to  go  home  at 
once,  and  the  rest  to  follow  in  three  weeks."  The 
injustice  of  this  blame  is  shown  by  Schuyler's  own 
account  of  the  event  to  the  Committee  of  Safety 
of  New  York:  "  It  was  evident  that  if  we  had  not 
consented  to  suffer  part  of  the  militia  to  return  to 
their  habitations,  we  should  have  lost  the  whole.  It 

200 


DEFECTION   OF   MILITIA 

was  therefore  resolved,  in  full  council  of  general 
officers,  that  half  should  be  permitted  to  leave  us, 
provided  the  others  would  remain  three  weeks. 
These  conditions  were  accepted  by  them,  and  one 
thousand  and  forty-six,  officers  included,  of  the 
militia  of  this  State  remained;  but  not  above  three 
hundred  out  of  twelve  of  those  from  the  county  of 
Berkshire,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts;  and  out 
of  about  five  hundred  from  the  county  of  Hamp- 
shire, in  the  same  State,  only  twenty-nine  commis- 
sioned and  non-commissioned  officers  and  thirty-four 
privates  are  left,  the  remainder  having  infamously 
deserted."  Gouverneur  Morris,  present  at  the  time, 
wrote  thus  regarding  the  desertions  of  the  militia: 
''  Three  hundred  of  the  militia  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  went  off  this  morning,  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion— we  should  have  said  entreaties — of  their  offi- 
cers. All  the  militia  on  the  ground  are  so  heartily 
tired,  and  so  extremely  desirous  of  getting  home, 
that  it  is  more  than  probable  that  none  of  them  will 
remain  here  ten  days  longer.  One-half  was  dis- 
charged two  days  ago,  to  silence,  if  possible,  their 
clamor,  and  the  remainder,  officers  excepted,  will 
soon  discharge  themselves."  The  militia  who  re- 
mained were  restless,  and  their  promised  three  weeks 
of  service  of  little  help.  In  this  difficulty  Schuyler 
asked  Washington  for  one  or  two  general  officers, 
New  England  men,  who  would  have  influence  in 
holding  the  New  England  troops  already  there,  and 

201 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

who  might  recruit  others.  Washington  sent  Gen- 
erals Arnold  and  Lincoln.  They  were  both  popu- 
lar among  Eastern  troops,  and  proved  of  the  high- 
est value. 

As  Washington  could  not  send  continental  troops 
to  Schuyler,  he  did  his  best  to  procure  militia  for 
him.  To  the  brigadier-generals  of  militia  in  west- 
ern Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  he  wrote,  point- 
ing out  the  danger  to  New  England  should  Bur- 
goyne  be  successful,  and  the  calamity  involved  in 
the  threatened  division  of  the  Eastern  from  the 
Southern  States.  "  It  cannot  be  supposed,"  he  said, 
"  that  the  small  number  of  continental  troops  as- 
sembled at  Fort  Edward  is  alone  sufficient  to  check 
the  progress  of  the  enemy.  To  the  militia,  there- 
fore, must  we  look  for  support  during  this  time  of 
trial;  and  I  trust  that  you  will,  immediately  upon 
the  receipt  of  this,  if  you  have  not  done  it  before, 
march  with  at  least  one-third  part  of  the  militia 
under  your  command,  and  rendezvous  at  Saratoga, 
unless  directed  to  some  other  place  by  General 
Schuyler  and  General  Arnold,  who,  so  well  known 
to  you  all,  goes  up,  at  my  request,  to  take  command 
of  the  militia  in  particular.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
you  will,  under  his  conduct  and  direction,  repel  an 
enemy  from  your  borders  who,  not  content  with 
bringing  mercenaries  to  lay  waste  your  country,  have 
now  brought  savages,  with  the  avowed  and  express 
intent  of  adding  murder  to  desolation."  To  this 

202 


appeal  of  Washington  response  was  made,  slowly 
at  first,  but  increasing  as  the  danger  became  more 
widely  understood.  Schuyler  had  to  face  Burgoyne 
with  his  small  and  waning  force  for  three  weeks  be- 
fore he  could  even  know  that  substantial  help  was 
on  its  way. 

But  not  only  was  Burgoyne  to  be  faced;  provision 
must  be  made  against  the  invasion  of  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  and  the  courage  of  the  people  must  be  kept 
up.  The  Committee  of  Tryon  County  and  the  in- 
habitants of  western  New  York,  instead  of  taking 
their  own  measures  and  arranging  for  their  own 
defence,  kept  applying  to  Schuyler  for  the  protection 
of  continental  troops,  of  which  he  had  so  few  him- 
self. "  I  am  sorry,  very  sorry,"  he  wrote  to  them, 
"  that  you  should  be  calling  upon  me  for  assistance 
of  continental  troops  when  I  have  already  spared 
you  all  I  could;  when  no  army  has  yet  made  its  ap- 
pearance; when  the  militia  of  every  county  in  the 
State  except  yours  is  altogether  called  out.  For 
God's  sake  do  not  forget  that  you  are  an  over-match 
for  any  force  the  enmy  can  bring  against  you,  if 
you  will  act  with  spirit.  I  have  a  large  army  to 
oppose,  and  trust  I  can  do  it  effectually,  and  prevent 
their  penetrating  to  any  distance  into  the  country. 
Keep  up  your  spirits;  show  no  signs  of  fear;  act 
with  vigor;  and  you  will  not  only  serve  your  coun- 
try, but  gain  immortal  honor."  To  General  Herki- 
mer,  in  command  of  the  Tryon  County  militia,  he 

203 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

wrote:  "We  must  oppose  the  enemy  where  they 
show  themselves;  that  is  here  at  present;  and  al- 
though Ticonderoga  is  abandoned,  I  am  neverthe- 
less not  afraid  that  they  will  be  able  to  get  much 
lower  into  the  country.  Keep  up  the  spirits  of  the 
people,  and  all  will  be  well."  At  the  end  of  July 
he  replied  to  a  discouraged  appeal  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety  at  Albany:  "When  an  enemy 
threatens  to  invade  a  country,  alarms,  real  or  false, 
arise  in  every  quarter.  Some  of  these  are  created 
by  the  fears  of  good  subjects,  whilst  others  are 
propagated  by  friends  of  the  enemy.  Schoharie 
may  labor  under  apprehensions  that  have  arisen  in 
one  or  the  other  of  these  ways,  or  from  some  real 
cause.  I  will  at  present  admit  the  latter;  but  is 
that  reason  sufficient  for  free  men  to  lay  down  their 
arms — ignobly  submit  to  the  enemy,  and  betray 
their  own,  their  posterity's,  and  their  country's  dear- 
est rights  to  a  cruel  and  relentless  enemy,  whose 
greatest  strength  consists  not  in  their  numbers,  but 
in  our  apprehensions?  Let  not  a  base  or  womanish 
timidity  take  place  of  that  prowess  which  but  a  little 
while  ago  was  so  conspicuous.  Let  the  inhabitants  of 
Schoharie  determine  to  repulse  the  enemy,  if  they 
should  attempt  an  attack.  Let  them  hunt  after  and 
seize  every  Tory  in  their  vicinity,  and  let  a  few  gen- 
tlemen from  Albany  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
people  in  that  quarter  go  into  that  district  and  revive 

204 


WASHINGTON    AND    HOWE 

the  spirits  of  the  people;  but  never  let  them  talk  of 
submission." 

Washington,  who  had  been  watching  Howe  so 
long  and  anxiously,  at  last  knew  that  the  latter  was 
bound  for  Philadelphia,  and  therefore  that  place 
must  be  his  own  destination  with  all  the  men  at  his 
command.  Regarding  the  continental  troops  at 
Peekskill,  he  wrote  to  Governor  Trumbull :  "  No 
more  can  be  detached  from  thence  to  the  Northern 
army  than  have  already  gone.  Two  brigades, 
Nixon's  and  Glover's,  have  been  ordered  from 
thence  to  their  aid.  Not  a  man  more  can  go,  as 
all  the  Continental  troops  at  that  post,  excepting 
two  thousand,  are  called  to  join  this  army.  For  I 
am  to  inform  you  that  General  Howe's  object  and 
operations  no  longer  remain  a  secret.  At  half  after 
nine  o'clock  this  morning  I  received  an  express  from 
Congress,  advising  me  that  the  enemy's  fleet,  con- 
sisting of  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  sail,  were 
at  the  capes  of  the  Delaware  yesterday  in  the  fore- 
noon. This  being  the  case,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  will  make  a  vigorous  push  to  possess  Phila- 
delphia, and  we  should  collect  all  the  forces  we  can 
to  oppose  him."  To  Schuyler  he  wrote  that  he 
could  send  no  troops  except  those  under  Glover. 
But  he  felt  sure  that  "  the  New  England  States, 
which  are  so  intimately  concerned  in  the  matter, 
will  exert  themselves  to  throw  in  effectual  succors  to 
enable  you  to  check  the  progress  of  the  enemy,  and 

205 


7'?; 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

repel  a  danger  with  which  they  are  so  immediately 
threatened."  Thus  the  main  reliance  of  Schuyler 
for  men  must  be  on  the  New  England  militia.  They 
were  so  distant  and  so  scattered,  and  the  means  of 
communication  were  so  slow,  that  none  could  tell 
in  what  numbers  nor  at  what  day  they  might  be 
expected. 

On  July  27th  the  advance  of  the  British  under 
General  Fraser  was  announced  by  scouts  to  be  near 
Fort  Edward,  where  it  had  arrived  after  three 
weeks  of  cutting  through  Schuyler's  obstructions. 
Whether  or  not  to  defend  this  position  was  now  the 
question.  Schuyler  heard  from  Philadelphia  that 
his  enemies  there  were  talking  about  Fort  Edward 
as  a  strong  place,  which  if  abandoned  would  be  con- 
sidered a  repetition  of  Ticonderoga.  "  I  find  from 
letters  from  below,"  he  wrote  to  Washington  on 
the  26th,  "  that  an  idea  prevails  that  Fort  Edward 
is  a  strong  and  regular  fortification.  It  was  once 
a  regular  fortification,  but  there  is  nothing  but  the 
ruins  of  it  left,  and  they  are  so  utterly  defenceless 
that  I  have  frequently  gallopped  my  horse  in  at  one 
side  and  out  at  the  other.  But  when  it  was  in  the 
best  condition  possible,  with  the  best  troops  to  gar- 
rison it,  and  provided  with  every  necessary,  it  would 
not  have  stood  two  days'  siege  after  the  proper  bat- 
teries had  been  opened.  It  is  situated  in  a  bottom 
on  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  surrounded  with  hills 

206 


THE   ARMY   AT    STILLWATER 

from  which  the  parade  may  be  seen  within  point- 
blank  shot.  I  doubt  not  that  it  will  be  said  that 
Fort  Miller,  Fort  Saratoga,  and  Stillwater  are  con- 
siderable fortifications,  of  neither  of  which  is  there 
a  trace  left,  although  they  still  retain  their  names." 
Generals  Arnold  and  Lincoln  were  now  with  Schuy- 
ler.  A  council  of  war,  at  which  all  the  general  offi- 
cers were  present,  decided  unanimously  that  no  stand 
could  be  made  at  Fort  Edward,  which  was  never 
intended  to  resist  an  enemy  with  artillery.  Further, 
that  the  army  should  cross  the  Hudson  and  take 
position  on  a  high  ground  out  of  the  forest,  near 
Stillwater  or  Saratoga.  This  move  was  made  im- 
mediately, Arnold  accompanying  Schuyler,  while 
Lincoln  went  to  the  eastward  into  Vermont  to  rouse 
the  militia  there,  some  of  whom  were  already  col- 
lected under  General  Warner.  By  July  3ist  the 
American  army  had  camped  on  a  hill  near  Still- 
water,  about  thirty  miles  north  of  Albany,  while 
Burgoyne's  army  had  occupied  Fort  Edward  and 
spread  southward  along  the  west  bank  of  the 
Hudson.  -£*/*•&' 

On  August  5th  Schuyler  wrote  to  Washington: 
"  By  the  unanimous  advice  of  all  the  general  officers, 
I  have  moved  the  army  to  this  place.  Here  we  pro- 
pose to  fortify  a  camp,  in  expectation  that  re- 
enforcements  will  enable  us  to  keep  the  ground  and 
prevent  the  enemy  from  penetrating  further  into 
the  country.  But  if  it  should  be  asked  from  whence 

207 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

I  expect  re-enforcement,  I  should  be  at  a  loss  for  an 
answer,  not  having  heard  a  word  from  Massa- 
chusetts on  my  repeated  application,  nor  am  I  cer- 
tain that  Connecticut  will  afford  us  any  succor. 
Our  Continental  force  is  daily  decreasing  by  deser- 
tion, sickness,  and  loss  in  skirmishes  with  the  enemy, 
and  not  a  man  in  the  militia  now  with  me  will  re- 
main above  one  week  longer,  and  while  our  force  is 
diminishing,  that  of  the  enemy  augments  by  a  con- 
stant acquisition  of  Tories;  but  if  by  any  means  we 
could  be  put  in  a  situation  of  attacking  the  enemy 
and  giving  them  a  repulse,  their  retreat  would  be 
so  extremely  difficult  that,  in  all  probability,  they 
would  lose  the  greater  part  of  their  army."  This 
was  the  darkest  moment  of  the  campaign.  Events 
were  about  to  occur  which  would  strengthen  the 
Americans  and  weaken  the  British.  Although 
Schuyler  could  not  know  it,  New  England  was  gath- 
ering and  sending  the  men  whom  he  needed  so  much. 


208 


/ 

.J  ... 

.        /  s~t  ^  JTX       — 5ff     '  V^       > 

"*--tt<p 


CHAPTER  VII. 

British  Defeats  at  Bennington  and  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley. — Bright    Prospects    of    the    Ameri- 
can  Army. — Schuyler   Superseded   by 
Gates. — Saratoga. — Last  Services 
During   the  War. 

WHILE  Schuyler  was  at  Stillwater  recruit- 
ing  and   organizing   his   army,    Burgoyne 
remained  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Hudson. 
As  Schuyler  had  anticipated,  every  day  of  delay  was 
favoring  the  Americans,  while  the  British  were  get- 
ting deeper  and  deeper  into  difficulty. 

Their  first  embarrassment  was  caused  by  the  In- 
dians. Burgoyne  had  disliked  the  employment  of 
such  allies,  but  his  orders  on  the  subject  were  positive. 
The  speech  by  which  he  had  sought  to  establish  among 
savages  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare  had  been,  of 
course,  fruitless.  They  burned  and  murdered  on  the 
line  of  march  without  discriminating  between  loyalist 
and  rebel,  and  thus  sent  many  indignant  waverers  into 
the  American  camp.  They  robbed  the  commissary 
stores,  wasted  the  provisions,  and  defied  all  discipline. 
At  the  end  of  July  an  incident  occurred  which  turned 
the  Indian  alliance  into  a  boomerang.  A  marauding 

209 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

party  of  savages,  under  a  chief  called  the  Panther, 
captured  near  Fort  Edward  the  young  daughter  of  a 
Scotch  clergyman  named  Jeanie  McCrea,  who  was 
visiting  the  house  of  a  Mrs.  McNeil.  Both  women 
were  loyalists,  and  Jeanie  was  engaged  to  a  Tory 
officer  in  the  British  army.  The  Indians  were  taking 
their  captives  toward  the  British  camp  when,  being 
pursued  by  a  party  of  Americans,  they  became  sepa- 
rated. Mrs.  McNeil  arrived  in  safety.  But  there 
was  no  news  of  Jeanie  until  the  next  day,  when  the 
Panther  appeared  bearing  a  scalp  which,  from  the 
long  hair  attached  to  it,  Mrs.  McNeil  recognized  as 
belonging  to  her  unfortunate  companion.  A  search 
revealed  the  body  in  the  forest,  pierced  by  three  bul- 
lets. Various  stones  were  told  of  how  the  young 
woman  came  to  her  death.  But  the  exact  circumstances 
were  immaterial.  Great  indignation  was  aroused  in 
the  British  camp,  and  Burgoyne  was  the  last  man  to 
endure  such  enormities.  He  issued  a  strict  order  that 
no  party  of  Indians  should  be  allowed  to  pass  out  of 
the  lines  unless  accompanied  by  an  English  officer. 
The  savages,  already  restless,  became  enraged  at  this 
order.  That  night,  after  loading  themselves  with 
all  the  provisions  they  could  carry,  they  decamped, 
scattering  into  the  Adirondacks.  Burgoyne  thus  lost 
a  body  of  men  who,  however  troublesome,  might  have 
proved  of  great  assistance  as  scouts.  But  the  loss  of 
the  Indians  was  only  a  part  of  the  damage  caused  by 
the  murder  of  Jeanie  McCrea.  The  story  of  her 

210 


BURGOYNE'S    DIFFICULTIES 

fate  spread  far,  angering  patriots  and  loyalists  alike, 
bringing  home  to  all  the  realities  of  war.  Great  was 
the  effect  in  New  England.  There  the  people  were 
slow  to  rouse.  They  were  busy  with  their  harvest; 
the  British  army  was  attacking  another  and  a  little- 
liked  colony.  There  was  a  disposition  to  let  New 
York  and  the  Continentals  take  care  of  Burgoyne. 
But  the  story  of  the  Panther  striding  into  the  British 
camp  swinging  the  long  hair  of  a  murdered  American 
girl  recruited  the  ranks  and  quickened  the  steps  of 
every  militia  company  in  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut. 

Burgoyne's  next  and  very  serious  difficulty  was  to 
procure  provisions  for  his  men.  The  roads  from 
Ticonderoga  were  almost  impassable,  and  besides,  he 
had  neither  the  wagons  nor  horses  for  transportation. 
His  reliance  on  foraging  had  proved  quite  vain.  As 
the  army  advanced  the  people  fled,  driving  their  cattle 
before  them.  The  Tories,  instead  of  giving  the  ex- 
pected assistance,  came  into  camp  to  be  supported, 
adding  a  new  embarrassment  of  mouths  to  feed.  In 
this  emergency  Burgoyne  listened  readily  to  Major 
Skene,  a  loyalist,  who  told  him  that  the  New  England 
militia  had  collected  a  quantity  of  horses,  ammuni- 
tion, and  provisions  at  a  village  called  Bennington,  in 
the  Hampshire  Grants,  which  they  intended  as  a  point 
of  distribution  for  the  troops  then  recruiting.  To 
capture  Bennington,  therefore,  would  mean  to  the 
British  not  only  a  supply  of  provisions  for  present 

211 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

needs,  and  horses  to  convey  their  own  supplies  from 
the  north,  but  also  a  severe  blow  to  the  New  England 
forces  which  Burgoyne  knew  to  be  gathering  in  his 
rear. 

To  accomplish  this  important  object,  Colonel  Baum 
was  sent  off  with  five  hundred  Germans  and  a  hundred 
Indians  who  had  just  arrived  from  Canada.  Colonel 
Skene  had  assured  Burgoyne  that  on  the  appearance 
of  this  force  Tories  in  large  numbers  would  join  it; 
so  he  was  sent  too,  with  other  loyalist  officers,  to  com- 
mand the  expected  accessions.  But  Baum  had  been 
hardly  a  day  on  his  march  when  the  actions  of  the 
inhabitants  convinced  him  that  no  help  could  be  ex- 
pected from  that  source,  and  he  wrote  to  Burgoyne 
for  re-enforcement.  The  British  commander  des- 
patched Colonel  Breyman,  with  five  hundred  more 
Germans  and  two  cannon.  They  were  most  inappro- 
priate troops  for  a  purpose  requiring  rapidity  and 
enterprise.  The  hat  and  sword  of  a  Hessian  dragoon 
weighed  nearly  as  much  as  the  whole  equipment  of  an 
English  soldier,  and  the  men  were  so  little  accustomed 
to  lay  aside  their  habits  of  discipline  that  while  march- 
ing through  thick  woods  they  would  stop  every  ten 
minutes  to  re-form  their  ranks.  With  such  slow  prog- 
ress, the  Americans  had  ample  warning  and  time  to 
prepare. 

The  action  at  this  time  of  the  New  England  militia 
and  of  their  commander,  General  Stark,  is  a  good 
illustration  of  the  peculiarities  of  these  soldiers,  of 

212 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    MILITIA 

their  splendid  qualities  as  defenders  of  their  own 
homes,  and  of  their  uncertain  usefulness  in  a  regular 
army.  General  Stark  was  a  veteran  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War;  he  had  fought  at  Bunker's  Hill, 
and  had  served  as  a  continental  officer  with  Washing- 
ton at  Trenton  and  Princeton.  But  in  recent  promo- 
tions Congress  had  passed  him  over,  and  he  had 
retired  in  disgust  to  his  Hampshire  home.  When 
Burgoyne's  invasion  was  in  progress,  and  General 
Lincoln  was  mustering  in  troops  at  Manchester,  he 
conveyed  to  Stark  the  orders  of  Schuyler  to  join  the 
main  army  at  Stillwater.  Stark  flatly  refused,  alleg- 
ing that  he  owed  allegiance  only  to  his  native  State 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  that  it  was  "his  option  to 
act  in  conjunction  with  the  continental  army  or  not." 
Lincoln  wrote  to  Schuyler:  "Whether  he  will  march 
his  troops  to  Stillwater  or  not,  I  am  quite  at  a  loss  to 
know.  But  if  he  doth,  it  is  a  fixed  point  with  him  to 
act  there  as  a  separate  corps,  and  take  no  orders  from 
any  officer  in  the  northern  department,  saving  your 
honor."  When  Congress  heard  of  the  attitude  of 
Stark,  it  declared  it  to  be  "destructive  of  military 
subordination,  and  highly  prejudicial  to  the  common 
cause."  Schuyler  wrote  at  once  to  Lincoln:  "You 
will  please  to  assure  General  Stark  .  .  .  that 
I  trust  and  entreat  that  he  will,  on  the  present  alarm- 
ing crisis,  waive  his  right;  as  the  greater  the  sacrifice 
he  makes  to  his  feelings,  the  greater  will  be  the  honor 
due  to  him,  for  not  having  suffered  any  consideration 

213 


LIFE   .OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

to  come  in  competition  with  the  weal  of  his  country, 
and  I  entreat  him  to  march  immediately  to  this 
army."  How  much  this  provincial  jealousy  added 
to  the  difficulties  of  Schuyler's  position  is  plain  to  see. 
He  had  a  great  invasion  to  repel.  He  had  to  rely 
for  men  almost  entirely  on  volunteer  militia  from 
neighboring  colonies.  But  he  had  to  beg  instead  of 
to  command.  Whether  the  militia  would  come,  or 
in  what  numbers,  could  not  be  definitely  known ;  and 
if  they  came,  the  length  of  time  that  they  would 
remain  was  equally  uncertain.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, to  make  plans,  to  map  out  a  campaign,  was 
nearly  impossible.  But  when  Baum  was  known  to 
be  approaching  Bennington  with  his  Germans,  there 
was  no  uncertainty  regarding  the  action  of  Stark  and 
his  militia.  The  men  who  refused  to  join  Lincoln's 
continental  army  at  Manchester  to  fight  in  New  York 
were  eager  to  serve  with  Stark  as  a  partisan  officer 
and  repel  the  foreign  mercenaries  who  dared  to  at- 
tack their  native  colony. 

On  August  1 5th,  Baum  arrived  at  Bennington  with 
his  dragoons  and  Indians  and  entrenched  himself  to 
wait  for  Breyman  and  the  re-enforcement.  But  that 
purpose  he  was  not  allowed  to  attain.  The  next 
morning  Stark  and  a  thousand  provincials  had  sur- 
rounded him.  Five  hundred  rustic  marksmen  poured 
in  a  fire  on  his  flanks  and  rear  while  Stark  charged 
with  the  rest  of  his  men.  The  Indians  ran  off  yelling 
into  the  woods,  and  in  two  hours  Baum  had  been 

214 


THE   BATTLE   OF   BENNINGTON 

killed  and  his  Germans  captured.  The  Americans 
were  busy  plundering  the  enemy's  camp  when  Brey- 
man  arrived  with  his  five  hundred  Hessians,  and 
might  have  turned  the  tables.  But  Colonel  Warner 
came  up  at  about  the  same  time  with  fresh  provin- 
cials. Breyman  was  assailed  on  all  sides  and  was 
glad  to  escape  with  sixty  men,  leaving  all  the  rest 
either  killed  or  prisoners.  These  sixty  were  all  that 
ever  returned  to  Burgoyne  out  of  the  thousand  which 
he  had  sent.  One-seventh  of  the  army  which  he  had 
brought  from  Canada  was  lost  with  all  the  arms  and 
four  cannon.  And  the  prospect  of  drawing  provisions 
from  the  country  was  destroyed.  This  victory,  so 
discouraging  to  the  British,  was  of  immense  benefit 
to  the  Americans.  All  western  New  England  was 
fired  by  it.  No  more  was  heard  of  reluctance  to  serve 
in  another  colony,  nor  of  officers  unwilling  to  take 
orders  from  continental  generals.  Lincoln's  army  at 
Manchester  and  Stark's  at  Bennington  grew  rapidly 
and  were  soon  marching  to  join  Schuyler  at  Still- 
water. 

Another  disaster  now  befell  Burgoyne  in  the 
destruction  of  the  army  which  was  to  invade  the 
Mohawk  Valley  and  to  join  him  at  Albany.  On  July 
1 5th,  St.  Leger  landed  at  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario, 
where  he  was  joined  by  Sir  John  Johnson  with  his 
Royal  Greens,  Colonel  Butler  with  his  Tories,  and  a 
body  of  Indians  under  Joseph  Brant.  The  expedi- 
tion, about  seventeen  hundred  strong,  took  the  old 

215 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

fur  trade  route,  up  the  Onandaga  River,  through 
Oneida  Lake,  and  over  the  long  carry  to  Fort  Stan- 
wix  or  Schuyler,  which  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
Mohawk  River.  On  August  3d,  St.  Leger  had  in- 
vested the  fort  and  summoned  it  to  surrender.  But 
its  gallant  commander,  Colonel  Peter  Gansevoort, 
sent  back  a  message  of  defiance. 

When  General  Nicholas  Herkimer  of  Tryon 
County  heard  that  Fort  Schuyler  was  besieged,  he 
gathered  his  militia  and  marched  to  the  rescue.  On 
August  5th  he  was  at  Oriskany,  on  the  Mohawk, 
eight  miles  below  the  fort.  Here  he  made  a  plan  of 
operations,  and  messengers  were  sent  ahead  to  com- 
municate it  to  Colonel  Gansevoort  within  the  fort. 
The  plan  was  that  Herkimer  should  march  up  and 
attack  St.  Leger  from  the  rear  at  the  same  time  that 
the  garrison  made  a  sally  upon  his  front.  The  signal 
for  concerted  action  was  to  be  given  by  three  guns 
from  the  fort.  Unfortunately  the  messengers  had 
so  much  difficulty  in  getting  into  the  fort  that  they 
were  delayed  in  communicating  the  plan.  When  the 
expected  time  for  the  attack  arrived,  the  three  guns 
were  not  heard  at  Oriskany.  Herkimer  wished  to 
wait.  But  some  of  his  officers  accused  him  of 
treachery  or  cowardice  and  insisted  on  an  advance. 
Against  his  better  judgment,  Herkimer  yielded  and 
led  his  men  up  the  river  bank.  But  his  presence  at 
Oriskany  had  been  reported  by  some  of  St.  Leger's 
Indians.  A  strong  force  of  Royal  Greens  and 

216 


BATTLE    OF   ORISKANY 

Mohawks  had  been  posted  in  ambuscade  in  the  forest. 
In  this  trap  Herkimer's  men  were  soon  caught.  A 
fierce  hand-to-hand  battle  ensued,  the  most  bloody  of 
the  Revolution.  Herkimer,  with  a  leg  shattered  by  a 
bullet,  sat  on  a  stump  and  gave  orders  while  smoking 
his  pipe.  His  men  fought  with  such  fury  that  finally 
the  Indians  fled  and  the  Royal  Greens  soon  followed. 
But  the  Americans,  although  victorious  in  holding 
the  ground,  had  suffered  such  losses  that  they  could 
do  no  more  than  carry  their  wounded  back  to  Oris- 
kany,  leaving  the  garrison  at  the  fort  to  take  care  of 
itself. 

When  Herkimer's  messengers  made  their  way  into 
the  fort,  the  sounds  of  the  distant  battle  could  be 
heard.  Gansevoort  understood  the  situation,  fired 
his  three  guns,  and  made  an  impetuous  sally.  Sir 
John  Johnson's  men,  taken  by  surprise,  were  driven 
across  the  river.  Gansevoort  looted  the  British  camp, 
loading  seven  wagons  with  booty,  including  all  Sir 
John's  papers.  Five  British  flags  were  taken,  which 
Gansevoort  raised  on  his  fort  with  an  improvised 
American  flag  hoisted  above  them.  The  result  of 
the  two  fights  was  greatly  in  favor  of  the  Americans. 
St.  Leger  still  kept  up  his  siege  of  Fort  Schuyler. 
But  his  losses  at  Oriskany  were  severe,  and  the  suc- 
cessful sortie  of  the  garrison  so  affected  his  prestige 
that  the  Indians  became  insolent  and  rebellious.  Un- 
able to  take  the  fort  before,  his  prospects  were  now 
much  worse. 

217 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Colonel  Gansevoort,  although  so  far  successful  and 
resolved  to  defend  Fort  Schuyler  to  the  last  extremity, 
feared  that  St.  Leger  might  receive  re-enforce- 
ments or  that  he  might  be  able  in  time  to  starve  out 
the  garrison.  From  the  battered  force  at  Oriskany 
there  was  no  hope  of  further  assistance.  Hence 
Gansevoort  sought  for  it  from  Schuyler.  Colonel 
Marinus  Willett,  who  had  led  the  late  gallant  sortie, 
stole  out  of  the  fort  with  one  companion,  with  infinite 
skill  and  labor  passed  St.  Leger's  lines,  reached 
Schuyler's  camp  at  Stillwater,  and  asked  him  to  re- 
lieve the  fort.  Schuyler  then  knew  unofficially  that 
Congress  had  superseded  him,  but  he  was  working 
none  the  less  hard  in  the  interest  of  the  country.  He 
called  a  council  of  war  to  determine  means  to  relieve 
the  fort.  He  told  the  assembled  officers  that  it  was 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  destroy  St.  Leger's  force 
at  once.  If  the  fort  were  taken,  the  Mohawk  Valley 
would  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  British,  and  a  large 
detachment  of  the  army  would  be  needed  in  that 
quarter.  If  St.  Leger  could  be  driven  off  now,  while 
Burgoyne  was  quiet  on  the  other  side  of  the  Hudson, 
there  would  remain  but  one  enemy  to  face,  against 
whom  all  the  American  forces  could  be  concentrated. 
Several  officers  spoke  in  opposition,  alleging  that  the 
army  then  present  was  too  weak  to  meet  Burgoyne, 
and  objecting  to  any  detachment.  Schuyler  was  walk- 
ing the  floor  in  anxious  reflection  when  he  overheard 
the  whispered  remark  of  one  of  the  officers:  "He 

218 


RELIEF   OF   FORT   SCHUYLER 

means  to  weaken  the  army."  This  remark,  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  ceaseless  accusations  of  treachery  made 
against  him  since  the  fall  of  Ticonderoga,  angered 
him  so  that  he  bit  in  two  the  pipe  which  he  held  in 
his  mouth.  He  turned  upon  the  council,  saying: 
"Gentlemen,  I  shall  take  the  responsibility  upon  my- 
self. Where  is  the  brigadier  that  will  take  command 
of  the  relief?  I  shall  beat  up  for  volunteers  to- 
morrow." Arnold,  soured  by  the  neglect  of  Con- 
gress, but  always  ready  for  a  deed  of  daring,  offered 
at  once  to  go. 

The  next  morning,  in  response  to  Schuyler's  call, 
eight  hundred  men  joined  Arnold  and  set  off  up  the 
Mohawk.  When  arrived  at  the  German  Flatts, 
twenty  miles  below  the  fort,  Arnold  resorted  to  a 
stratagem  to  encourage  the  garrison  and  to  intimidate 
the  enemy.  A  half-witted  fellow,  named  Jan  Jost, 
and  his  brother,  both  well-known  Tories,  had  been 
captured.  Arnold  threatened  to  hang  them  both, 
and  then  offered  to  Jan  Jost  his  own  and  his  brother's 
life  if  he  would  spread  the  news  at  the  fort  of  a  large 
force  advancing  to  its  relief.  Jan  arrived  at  St. 
Leger's  camp  with  bullet  holes  through  his  coat  and 
apparently  overcome  by  terror.  He  was  known  to  be 
a  violent  Tory,  and  when  he  described  the  coming 
enemy  as  numerous  as  the  leaves  upon  the  trees,  he 
was  readily  believed.  St.  Leger  had  a  motley  force 
composed  of  British,  Indians,  Canadians  and  Ameri- 
can Tories.  They  were  bound  together  more  by  the 

219 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

hope  of  plunder  and  scalps  than  by  a  common  senti- 
ment or  military  discipline.  The  fight  at  Oriskany, 
where  many  Indians  had  been  killed,  left  the  savages 
in  bad  humor,  and  the  successful  sortie  of  the  gar- 
rison had  injured  the  prestige  of  St.  Leger  and  Sir 
John  Johnson.  Demoralization  had  already  begun. 
When  Jan  Jost  arrived  with  his  discouraging  news, 
the  Indians  made  up  their  minds  that  there  was  no 
profit  in  the  business  for  them.  They  seized  some 
barrels  of  rum,  got  very  drunk  and  ran  amuck 
through  the  camp.  A  free  fight  was  kept  up  all  night. 
The  next  morning  St.  Leger  and  Sir  John  had  lost 
all  control.  They  retreated,  abandoning  everything 
in  the  camp.  The  garrison  sallied  forth  and  pursued 
for  a  time.  Many  of  the  invaders  were  lost  in  the 
forest  and  many  shot  by  the  Indians,  who  cared 
little  from  whose  heads  they  took  their  scalps.  It 
was  a  very  small  band  that  embarked  at  Oswego  for 
Canada  with  Sir  John  Johnson  and  St.  Leger.  The 
great  expedition  which  had  terrified  the  Mohawk  Val- 
ley, which  had  given  so  much  anxiety  to  Schuyler  and 
upon  which  Burgoyne  depended  as  an  important  part 
of  his  plan,  thus  melted  away;  and  Arnold  returned 
without  loss  to  the  main  army. 

Looking  at  the  situations  of  Burgoyne  and  of 
Schuyler  after  the  battle  of  Bennington  and  the 
retreat  of  St.  Leger,  it  is  evident  that  the  tables  were 
turned.  Burgoyne  had  taken  Ticonderoga  without 
loss  and  had  advanced  to  the  Hudson  River  with  a 


220 


DISCOURAGEMENT   OF   BURGOYNE 

flourish  of  trumpets;  and  King  George  at  the  news 
had  rushed  into  the  Queen's  room,  exclaiming  tri- 
umphantly, "I  have  beat  them;  I  have  beat  all  the 
Americans."  But  Schuyler  had  prevented  Burgoyne 
from  reaching  Fort  Edward  until  the  3Oth  of  July, 
and  now,  three  weeks  later,  the  British  general  was 
still  on  the  same  ground,  beset  by  difficulties  and 
uncertain  what  course  to  pursue.  At  the  news  from 
Bennington  and  Fort  Schuyler,  the  Tories  and  Cana- 
dians began  to  drop  off.  If  he  once  left  his  com- 
munication with  Lake  George,  he  would  have  no 
means  of  getting  provisions.  The  assistance  which 
he  had  been  led  to  believe  would  be  given  by  the 
loyalist  population  turned  out  to  be  a  dream.  "The 
great  bulk  of  the  country,"  he  wrote  home,  "is  un- 
doubtedly with  the  Congress  in  principle  and  zeal, 
and  their  measures  are  executed  with  a  secrecy  and 
despatch  that  are  not  to  be  equalled.  .  .  .  The 
Hampshire  Grants,  in  particular,  a  country  unpeo- 
pled and  almost  unknown  last  war,  now  abounds  in 
the  most  active  and  rebellious  race  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  hangs  like  a  gathering  storm  on  my  left." 
He  had  been  obliged  to  leave  a  large  force  at  Ticon- 
deroga  to  protect  his  rear;  a  thousand  of  his  men 
were  lost  at  Bennington;  St.  Leger  was  gone;  from 
Sir  William  Howe  nothing  could  be  heard.  How  he 
was  to  provision  his  army  when  he  left  his  communi- 
cation with  Lake  George,  he  could  not  tell.  There 
could  be  no  re-enforcement  for  him,  while  he  knew 

221 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

that  his  enemy's  army  was  growing  every  day.  Yet 
positive  orders  compelled  an  advance.  Concerning 
his  situation  at  this  time,  he  wrote  afterwards:  "The 
expedition  which  I  commanded  was  at  first  evidently 
intended  to  be  hazarded;  circumstances  might  require 
it  should  be  devoted."  Burgoyne  was  already  a 
beaten  man,  and  every  day  made  his  position  worse. 
"I  do  not  despair,"  he  wrote.  "Should  I  succeed 
in  forcing  my  way  to  Albany  and  find  that  country 
in  a  state  to  subsist  my  army,  I  shall  think  no  more 
of  a  retreat,  but,  at  the  worst,  fortify  there,  and  await 
Sir  William's  operations."  It  was  not  until  the  I3th 
of  September,  nearly  a  month  later,  that  he  had 
gathered  enough  provisions  to  enable  him  to  cross 
the  Hudson. 

On  the  other  hand,  Schuyler's  army  was  growing 
in  strength  and  confidence.  It  was  stationed  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Hudson  about  thirty  miles  below 
the  British,  from  Stillwater  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Mohawk.  It  had  been  re-enforced  by  General  Put- 
nam's regiment  from  Peekskill  and  by  Morgan's 
riflemen.  Volunteers  were  arriving  in  small  groups 
every  day.  Lincoln  wrote  that  he  was  on  his  way 
with  two  thousand  men  from  the  Hampshire  Grants; 
Stark,  that  he  was  coming  with  the  victors  of  Ben- 
nington.  Arnold  was  returning  from  the  Mohawk, 
not  only  with  his  own  detachment,  but  with  a  large 
body  of  militia  whose  services  were  no  longer  needed 
to  defend  the  West.  The  whole  country  was  aroused. 

222 


/ 

'  ~  , 

SUPERSEDED    BY    GATES 

With  an  enemy  approaching  and  fighting  imminent, 
every  man  was  ready  to  leave  his  farm  and  carry  a 
rifle  into  the  continental  camp.  Schuyler  was  sure 
of  ten  thousand  men.  The  dark  days  of  uncertainty 
had  gone  and  a  bright  prospect  was  opening. 

At  this  juncture,  on  the  I9th  of  August,  General 
Gates  arrived  in  the  American  camp  bearing  a  com- 
mission as  commander-in-chief  of  the  northern  de- 
partment. 

The  causes  which  brought  about  this  change  of 
commanders  are  to  be  found  partly  in  inter-colonial 
prejudice  and  partly  in  the  selfish  intrigues  of  General 
Gates.  Immediately  after  the  evacuation  of  Ticon- 
deroga,  the  New  England  delegates  in  Congress  re- 
newed their  campaign  to  substitute  Gates  for 
Schuyler,  which  had  been  defeated  the  previous 
month.  They  secured  the  support  of  southern  mem- 
bers, who,  discouraged  by  that  disaster,  were  ready 
for  a  change;  and  they  had  the  assistance  of  Gates 
himself,  who  had  been  pushing  his  own  interests  at 
Philadelphia  while  Schuyler  was  facing  Burgoyne  at 
Fort  Edward.  On  the  29th  of  July  it  was  resolved 
that  an  investigation  should  be  made  of  the  evacua- 
tion of  Ticonderoga.  But  as  it  speedily  became 
known  that  St.  Clair  accepted  full  responsibility  for 
that  event,  and  the  justification  for  it  was  recognized, 
another  ground  for  action  had  to  be  found.  This 
was  that  the  New  England  militia  disliked  Schuyler 
and  would  not  join  the  northern  army  while  he  was 

223 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

in  command.  On  August  ist,  Congress  recalled 
Schuyler  and  asked  Washington  to  appoint  a  new 
general-in-chief.  A  memorial  in  the  handwriting  of 
Samuel  Adams  and  signed  by  all  the  New  England 
delegates,  requested  him  to  appoint  Gates.  Wash- 
ington, who  had  seen  enough  of  Gates,  refused  to 
interfere  and  left  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  Con- 
gress. On  August  5th  Gates  received  his  appoint- 
ment. 

Governeur  Morris  and  John  Jay  had  gone  to 
Philadelphia  to  represent  to  Congress  the  situation 
in  the  north,  but  arrived  the  day  after  Gates's  ap- 
pointment. Morris  wrote  to  Schuyler:  "You  will 
readily  believe  that  we  were  not  pleased  at  this 
resolution,  and  I  assure  you  for  my  own  part  I  feel 
exceedingly  distressed  at  your  removal,  just  when 
changing  fortune  began  to  declare  in  your  favor. 
Congress,  I  hope,  will  perceive  that  our  successes 
have  been  owing  to  the  judicious  plans  adopted  pre- 
vious to  your  removal."  Jay  wrote  him:  "Wash- 
ington and  Congress  were  assured  that  unless  another 
general  presided  in  the  northern  department  the 
militia  of  New  England  would  not  be  brought  into 
the  field.  The  Congress,  under  this  apprehension, 
exchanged  their  general  for  the  militia — a  bargain 
which  can  receive  no  justification  from  the  supposed 
necessity  of  the  times."  James  Duane  wrote :  "Your 
enemies,  relentless,  and  bent  on  your  destruction, 
would  willingly  include  you  in  the  odium  of  losing 

224 


CAUSES    OF   HIS    REMOVAL 

Ticonderoga.  The  change  of  command  was  not, 
however,  founded  on  this  principle,  but  merely  on 
the  representation  of  the  Eastern  States  that  their 
militia,  suspicious  of  your  military  character,  would 
not  turn  out  in  defence  of  New  York  while  you  pre- 
sided in  the  northern  department." 

The  reason  for  superseding  Schuyler  which  was 
urged  by  the  New  England  delegates  was  a  serious 
accusation  for  them  to  make  against  their  own  people. 
Generals  Lincoln,  Putnam,  Stark  and  Arnold,  who 
were  the  officers  under  whom  the  New  England 
militia  would  actually  serve,  were  all  New  England 
men  and  all  popular  with  eastern  troops.  To  say 
that  under  these  leaders  of  their  own  they  would  not 
rally  to  defend  their  country  against  the  British,  the 
Germans  and  the  savages  who  were  invading  it,  while 
Schuyler  remained  commander-in-chief,  was  to  accuse 
them  of  a  lack  of  patriotism,  of  a  narrowness  and 
intensity  of  prejudice  which  would  have  made  them 
little  deserving  of  consideration.  But  the  accusation 
was  false  and  so  proved  by  the  facts.  When  the 
knowledge  that  Burgoyne's  army  was  penetrating 
southward  reached  the  scattered  settlements  of  west- 
ern New  England,  when  it  was  realized  that  a  great 
fight  was  imminent,  the  militia  flocked  to  the  stand- 
ards of  Lincoln  and  Stark.  The  murder  of  Jeanie 
McCrea  came  like  an  alarm  bell  to  call  them  to 
action.  The  victory  at  Bennington  filled  them  with 
confidence  and  enthusiasm.  Long  before  Gates's 

225 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

appointment  was  known  in  the  north,  the  eastern 
militia  was  marching  to  join  Schuyler.  By  the  time 
Gates  arrived,  and  he  brought  with  him  the  first 
definite  news  of  his  appointment,  Schuyler  had  in 
camp,  or  known  to  be  approaching  it,  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men. 

Of  course,  a  strong  prejudice  against  each  other 
existed  between  tne  colonies  of  New  England  and 
New  York.  An  amusing  instance  of  it  is  given  in  the 
will  of  Lewis  Morris  of  Morrisania,  who  wrote  in 
1762:  "It  is  my  desire  that  my  son,  Gouverneur 
Morris,  may  have  the  best  education  that  is  to  be 
had  in  Europe  or  America,  but  my  express  will  and 
directions  are,  that  he  be  never  sent  for  that  purpose 
to  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  least  he  should  imbibe 
in  his  youth  that  low  craft  and  cunning  so  incident 
to  the  people  of  that  country,  which  is  so  interwoven 
in  their  constitutions,  that  all  their  art  cannot  disguise 
it  from  the  world,  though  many  of  them  under  the 
sanctified  garb  of  religion,  have  endeavored  to  impose 
themselves  on  the  world  for  honest  men."  On  the 
other  hand,  democratic  New  England  disliked  aris- 
tocratic New  York.  That  Schuyler  was  of  Dutch 
descent,  and  that  he  had  supported  the  claim  of  New 
York  to  the  Hampshire  Grants,  were  sufficient  causes 
for  the  early  prejudice  against  him.  This  feeling 
was  increased  by  Schuyler's  attempt  to  introduce  the 
military  discipline  which  he  had  learned  in  the  British 
army  during  the  French  war,  and  which  was  in  ac- 

226 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    MILITIA 

cordance  with  the  Dutch  spirit  of  order  and  system 
which  was  an  essential  part  of  his  character  and  of 
his  success  in  private  life. 

But  military  discipline  was  unendurable  to  these 
independent,  self-reliant  New  Englanders.  They  re- 
garded it  as  tyranny  and  aristocratic  assumption. 
That  they  were  not  allowed  to  help  themselves  to 
commissary  stores  at  will,  that  they  were  subjected  to 
sanitary  regulations,  that  they  were  constrained  to 
a  silent  obedience,  were  regarded  as  so  many  en- 
croachments on  their  liberties.  They  enlisted  only 
for  short  periods,  and  considered  themselves  free  to 
join  the  army  or  to  leave  it  as  they  pleased.  All  this 
was  galling  to  Schuyler,  whose  temper  was  by  no 
means  easy.  These  remarks  apply  to  eastern  men 
when  employed  as  militia,  not  when  acting  as  con- 
tinental soldiers.  It  is  well  known  that  the  New 
England  portion  of  the  continental  army  was  its  very 
backbone;  that  these  hardy  soldiers,  when  used  to 
discipline,  formed  the  certain  reliance  of  Washing- 
ton. But  let  us  see  what  Washington  himself  had 
to  say  about  the  New  England  troops  when  employed 
as  militia:  "Our  situation  is  truly  distressing,"  he 
wrote  to  Congress,  September  2d,  1776.  "The 
check  our  detachment  sustained  on  the  27th  ultimo 
has  dispirited  too  great  a  proportion  of  our  troops, 
and  filled  their  minds  with  apprehension  and  despair. 
The  militia,  instead  of  calling  forth  their  utmost 
efforts  to  a  brave  and  manly  opposition  in  order  to 

227 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

repair  our  losses,  are  dismayed,  intractable  and  im- 
patient to  return.  Great  numbers  of  them  have  gone 
off,  in  some  instances,  almost  by  whole  regiments,  by 
half  ones,  and  by  companies  at  a  time. 
When  their  example  has  infected  another  part  of  the 
army,  when  their  want  of  discipline,  and  refusal  of 
almost  every  kind  of  restraint  and  government,  have 
produced  a  like  conduct  but  too  common  to  the  whole, 
and  an  entire  disregard  of  that  order  and  subordina- 
tion necessary  to  the  well  doing  of  an  army,  . 
our  condition  becomes  still  more  alarming."  Again, 
September  22d,  he  writes  his  brother:  "The  de- 
pendence which  the  Congress  have  placed  upon  the 
militia  has  already  greatly  injured,  and  I  fear  will 
totally  ruin  our  cause.  Being  subject  to  no  control 
themselves,  they  introduce  disorder  among  the 
troops,  whom  we  have  attempted  to  discipline,  while 
the  change  in  their  living  brings  on  sickness;  this 
causes  an  impatience  to  get  home,  which  spreads  uni- 
versally, and  introduces  abominable  desertions." 
And  to  Congress,  on  the  24th  September,  he  wrote: 
"To  place  any  dependence  upon  militia  is  assuredly 
resting  upon  a  broken  staff.  Men  just  dragged  from 
the  tender  scenes  of  domestic  life,  unaccustomed  to 
the  din  of  arms,  totally  unacquainted  with  every  kind 
of  military  skill  (which  is  followed  by  want  of  con- 
fidence in  themselves,  when  opposed  to  troops  regu- 
larly trained,  disciplined  and  appointed,  superior  in 
knowledge  and  superior  in  arms),  are  timid  and 

228 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND    MILITIA 

ready  to  fly  from  their  own  shadows.  Besides,  the 
sudden  change  in  their  manner  of  living,  particularly 
in  their  lodging,  brings  on  sickness  in  many,  impa- 
tience in  all,  and  such  an  unconquerable  desire  of 
returning  to  their  respective  homes,  that  it  not  only 
produces  shameful  and  scandalous  desertions  among 
themselves,  but  infuses  the  like  spirit  into  others. 
Again,  men  accustomed  to  unbounded  freedom  and 
no  control  cannot  brook  the  restraint,  which  is  indis- 
pensably necessary  to  the  good  order  and  government 
of  an  army;  without  which  licentiousness  and  every 
kind  of  disorder  triumphantly  reign.  To  bring  men 
to  a  proper  degree  of  subordination  is  not  the  work 
of  a  day,  a  month  or  even  a  year.  .  .  .  If  I 
was  called  upon  to  declare  upon  oath  whether  the 
militia  have  been  most  serviceable  or  hurtful  upon 
the  whole,  I  should  subscribe  to  the  latter." 

In  the  light  of  Washington's  own  experience  of 
militia,  which  at  the  time  he  wrote  were  chiefly  from 
New  England,  it  is  easy  to  see  with  what  a  problem 
Schuyler  had  had  to  deal.  When  he  first  gathered 
his  little  army  together  at  Ticonderoga  for  the  in- 
vasion of  Canada  his  efforts  to  establish  military 
regulations,  to  control  the  distribution  of  stores,  to 
enforce  sanitary  rules,  met  with  rebellious  resistance. 
His  own  exertion  of  authority  was  stigmatized  as 
aristocratic  pride.  He  was  disliked  for  trying  to  be 
a  soldier  himself  and  for  trying  to  make  his  army 

229 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

soldierlike.  Montgomery  met  the  same  fate.  Pop- 
ular at  first  for  his  gallant  and  generous  qualities,  as 
soon  as  the  men  were  in  the  field  and  began  to  feel  the 
trials  and  rigor  of  a  military  life,  his  popularity 
waned.  Of  the  trials  which  he  endured  from  the 
insubordination  of  his  men,  how  nearly  half  of  them 
deserted  him  at  Montreal,  leaving  him  to  go  on  to 
Quebec  with  a  remnant,  has  been  told  in  a  previous 
chapter.  The  same  unwillingness  to  endure  the  re- 
straints of  military  discipline  and  to  remain  away 
from  their  homes  for  more  than  a  short  time,  had 
made  the  militia  an  extremely  doubtful  reliance  for 
Schuyler  through  the  year  1776.  When  he  returned 
from  Philadelphia  in  June  and  had  the  invasion  of 
Burgoyne  to  face,  it  was  this  uncertainty  about  the 
militia  which  made  his  chief  difficulty.  He  was  told 
by  Congress  and  by  Washington  that  he  must  draw 
his  army  from  New  England  volunteers.  He  sent  to 
the  governors  and  received  promises.  But  it  was 
impossible  to  tell  whether  the  men  would  come  in 
sufficient  numbers  or  would  come  in  time.  No  ag- 
gressive plan  could  be  made  when  the  material  of 
the  army  was  so  indefinite.  Bancroft  blames  Schuyler 
for  appealing  to  Washington  for  continental  troops. 
But  it  was  natural  that  a  general  facing  a  great 
invasion  of  trained  veterans  should  prefer  a  thousand 
regular  soldiers  who  would  certainly  stay  with  him 
to  a  possible  three  thousand  who  might  or  might  not 
join  him,  and  might  or  might  not  choose  to  remain 

230 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   GATES 

until  the  campaign  was  over.  On  the  eve  of  the 
battle  of  Bennington  the  Rev.  Mr.  Alien,  who  had 
come  up  from  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  with  the 
militia  of  his  neighborhood,  said  to  Stark:  "Colonel, 
our  Berkshire  people  have  often  been  called  out  to 
no  purpose,  and  if  you  don't  let  them  fight  now  they 
will  never  turn  out  again."  That  was  exactly  the 
spirit  of  the  New  England  militia.  Fight  they 
would  when  there  was  a  fight  on  hand.  But  the 
general  who  was  to  benefit  by  their  services  must  have 
the  battle  already  arranged  and  the  enemy  on  the 
spot  so  that  they  could  fight  and  return  without  loss 
of  time.  To  join  an  army,  wait  perhaps  for  months, 
march  and  counter-march  through  a  campaign  while 
their  crops  were  ungathered,  that  they  would  not  do. 
Nor  should  Congress  have  expected  it  of  them. 

The  general  military  outlook  was  gloomy  when 
the  resolution  to  supersede  Schuyler  was  passed. 
Howe's  army  was  superior  to  Washington's,  and  in 
the  north  Burgoyne  seemed  to  have  an  overwhelming 
force.  Congress  acted  in  accordance  with  its  best 
lights  in  yielding  to  the  claim  of  the  New  England 
delegates  that  their  men  would  not  come  out  at  Schuy- 
ler's  call.  The  retirement  of  Schuyler  was  an  error 
excusable  under  the  circumstances.  But  the  choice 
of  his  successor  was  a  great  mistake.  Gates  had  done 
nothing  during  his  employment  in  the  northern  de- 
partment in  1776.  The  two  months  of  his  command 
there  in  1777,  before  the  approach  of  Burgoyne,  were 

231 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

spent  in  Albany  in  writing  letters  to  his  political  sup- 
porters, while  Ticonderoga,  his  special  charge,  was 
left  to  itself  and  never  even  visited.  We  shall  see 
how  little  the  victory  of  Saratoga  was  due  to  him; 
and  later  history  tells  of  his  disgraceful  connection 
with  the  Conway  Cabal,  his  incompetence  at  Camden 
and  the  final  pricking  of  the  bubble  of  his  military 
reputation. 

Useless  as  a  general  as  Gates  turned  out  to  be,  the 
worst  feature  of  his  career  was  the  constant  base 
intrigue  by  which  he  sought  to  supplant  a  fellow 
soldier  who  had  shown  him  nothing  but  generosity 
and  kindness.  His  own  correspondence  with  the  New 
England  delegates  places  his  conduct  in  the  worst 
light.  Of  the  reprehensible  character  of  such  in- 
trigue, evidence  enough  is  given  by  the  way  another 
Englishman  looked  at  a  similar  accusation  made 
against  himself.  When  Burgoyne  returned  to  Eng- 
land a  defeated  man,  there  were  many  attacks  made 
upon  him.  But  the  one  that  angered  him  most  was 
that  he  had  intrigued  at  court  to  obtain  the  command 
of  an  expedition  which  rightfully  belonged  to  Sir  Guy 
Carleton,  the  senior  officer  in  Canada.  Before  the 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Burgoyne 
said:  "The  next  tendency  was  to  impress  the  public 
with  an  opinion  that  I  was  endeavoring  to  supplant 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  in  the  command  of  the  northern 
army,  an  action  abhorrent  to  the  honor  of  an  officer 
and  the  liberality  of  a  gentleman,  and  of  which, 

232 


THE    TEST    OF    CHARACTER 

thank  God,  I  can  prove  the  falsehood  by  irrefragable 
evidence  upon  your  table."  That  Gates  pursued  per- 
sistently during  a  whole  year  a  course  of  action  which 
Burgoyne  considered  "abhorrent  to  the  honor  of  an 
officer  and  the  liberality  of  a  gentleman"  is  exposed 
in  his  correspondence  with  the  New  England  dele- 
gates. 

Schuyler's  character  was  severely  tried  when  he 
received  the  humiliating  news  that  after  his  untiring 
and  successful  labors,  when  a  bright  military  prospect 
seemed  before  him,  when  the  wished-for  army  was 
assured  and  a  decisive  battle  imminent,  another  man 
was  to  take  his  place.  By  the  way  he  bore  this  trial 
he  must  be  judged  as  a  man  and  a  patriot.  To 
President  Hancock  he  wrote:  "I  am  far  from  being 
insensible  of  the  indignity  of  being  ordered  from  the 
command  of  the  army  at  a  time  when  an  engagement 
must  soon  take  place.  It,  however,  gives  me  great 
consolation  that  'I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of 
evincing  that  my  conduct  has  been  such  as  deserved 
the  thanks  of  my  country."  A  few  days  later  he 
wrote  to  James  Duane:  "Last  night  I  was  advised 
that  General  Gates  is  on  the  point  of  arriving  to 
relieve  me.  Your  fears  may  be  up,  lest  the  ill-treat- 
ment I  have  experienced  at  his  hands  should  so  far 
get  the  better  of  my  judgment  as  to  embarrass  him. 
Do  not,  my  dear  friend,  be  uneasy  on  that  account. 
I  am  incapable  of  sacrificing  my  country  to  a  resent- 
ment however  just,  and  I  trust  I  shall  give  an  example 

233 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

of  what  a  good  citizen  ought  to  do  when  he  is  in 
my  situation.  I  am  nevertheless  daily  more  sensible 
of  the  affront  Congress  has  so  unjustly  given  me." 
General  Stark  had  just  informed  Schuyler  that  he 
had  waived  his  military  claims  and  would  march  his 
Hampshire  troops  to  Stillwater.  In  thanking  him 
Schuyler  said:  "In  this  critical  conjuncture,  if  a 
gentleman,  while  he  asserts  his  rights,  sacrifices  his 
feelings  to  the  good  of  his  country,  he  will  merit  the 
thanks  of  his  country."  In  such  a  spirit  Schuyler 
himself  acted.  From  the  time  that  he  heard  of  his 
retirement  until  the  arrival  of  Gates,  he  worked  as 
hard  as  ever.  It  was  in  this  interval  that  Arnold  was 
sent  up  the  Mohawk,  and  that  great  progress  was 
made  in  organizing  and  provisioning  the  army. 
Schuyler's  generous  acceptance  of  this  humiliation 
marks  the  climax  of  his  revolutionary  career  and 
constitutes  his  best  claim  to  the  respect  of  his  country- 
men. Many  men  have  put  life  and  property  in 
jeopardy  for  their  country's  sake;  but  few  men,  hold- 
ing high  commands,  have  borne  calumny  from  the 
people  and  unjust  treatment  from  the  government  as 
Schuyler  did:  without  being  soured,  without  vin- 
dictive feeling,  without  any  diminution  of  public 
spirit.  This  test  of  character,  so  nobly  met,  touches 
the  highest  note  of  patriotism. 

When  Gates  arrived  in  camp  on  August  iQth  with 
his  commission  as  commander-in-chief,  Schuyler  re- 
ceived him  with  politeness,  gave  him  all  the  informa- 

234 


THE    BATTLE    OF    SARATOGA 

tion  he  possessed  regarding  the  enemy  and  his  own 
army,  and  offered  his  assistance  in  any  capacity.  But 
Gates  ignored  him  completely.  Although  he  invited 
everybody  to  his  first  council  of  war,  even  calling  up 
General  Ten  Broeck  from  Albany,  he  did  not  ask 
Schuyler  to  attend  it.  Upon  which  Gouverneur  Mor- 
ris remarked  with  his  usual  trenchant  phrase :  "The 
new  commander-in-chief  of  the  northern  department 
may,  if  he  please,  neglect  to  ask  or  disdain  to  receive 
advice;  but  those  who  know  him  will,  I  am  sure,  be 
convinced  that  he  needs  it." 

As  Schuyler's  active  military  service  terminated  on 
the  1 9th  of  August,  when  he  left  the  camp  for  Al- 
bany, a  detailed  account  of  the  battles  of  Saratoga 
need  not  be  repeated  here.  But  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  show  clearly 
that  the  result  was  not  due  to  the  change  in  com- 
manders. That  Schuyler  would  have  contributed 
more  to  the  victory  than  Gates  is,  to  say  the  least, 
probable.  That  he  would  have  contributed  less  is 
incredible. 

Burgoyne's  position  became  more  embarrassing 
every  day.  It  was  not  until  the  I3th  of  September 
that  he  had  acquired  enough  provisions  to  enable  him 
to  cross  the  Hudson  on  the  march  to  Albany.  Hear- 
ing no  word  from  Howe,  knowing  that  St.  Leger  had 
been  driven  off,  he  was  loath  to  advance  further  into 
a  hostile  country  where  he  might  be  unable  to  subsist 
his  army.  But  his  orders  were  positive.  On  the  1 9th 

235 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

occurred  the  first  conflict  at  Bemis  Heights  and  Free- 
man's Farm,  where  the  British  advance  was  checked 
by  Generals  Morgan  and  Arnold,  without  assistance 
from  Gates.  For  nearly  three  weeks  more  Burgoyne 
remained  inactive  and  uncertain,  his  situation  becom- 
ing desperate  for  lack  of  provision,  while  the  Ameri- 
can army  increased  to  sixteen  thousand  men.  October 
yth  occurred  the  second  battle  of  Freeman's  Farm, 
resulting  in  a  decisive  victory  for  the  Americans 
under  the  leadership  chiefly  of  Morgan  and  Arnold, 
while  Gates  was  quarrelling  in  his  tent  with  a 
wounded  English  prisoner.  During  the  next  ten 
days  the  American  army  had  increased  to  twenty 
thousand  men;  the  British  were  surrounded  and  as- 
sailed from  every  side;  retreat  to  Ticonderoga  was 
cut  off;  provisions  were  exhausted,  even  water  unob- 
tainable. On  the  1 7th  followed  the  inevitable  capitu- 
lation. 

The  credit  for  the  destruction  of  Burgoyne's  ex- 
pedition belongs  to  no  one  man.  Schuyler  contributed 
largely  to  it  by  the  courage  and  energy  with  which  he 
held  together  the  little  army  left  after  the  loss  of 
Ticonderoga,  kept  up  a  bold  front  toward  a  greatly 
superior  enemy,  delayed  and  harassed  his  advance. 
To  Schuyler's  prompt  action,  as  to  Herkimer  and 
Arnold,  was  due  the  safety  of  the  Mohawk  Valley. 
Stark's  victory  at  Bennington  contributed  much. 
Lincoln's  aid  in  raising  the  New  England  militia  was 
of  great  value.  Looking  at  the  military  operations, 

236 


THE    BATTLE    OF   SARATOGA 

which  together  constitute  the  battle  of  Saratoga,  it 
is  impossible  to  credit  Gates  with  any  definite  plan 
of  campaign,  or  to  trace  to  orders  of  his  any  im- 
portant movement.  On  the  contrary,  he  obstructed 
Arnold  as  much  as  he  could,  and  at  decisive  moments 
was  complaining  and  arguing  to  no  purpose.  The 
two  battles  were  fought  on  the  part  of  the  Americans 
according  to  no  plan  but  that  of  attacking  the  enemy 
whenever  he  moved.  Arnold,  Morgan  and  Lincoln 
were  partisan  leaders,  acting  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment,  agreeing  among  themselves  and  assisting 
each  other,  but  under  direction  of  no  single  authority. 
Arnold,  indeed,  had  been  deprived  of  all  command 
by  Gates,  and  was  no  more  than  a  private  citizen 
when  he  led  the  impetuous  and  decisive  charge  on 
Eraser's  line  at  the  second  battle  of  Freeman's  Farm. 
It  is  certain  that  Schuyler's  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  country  where  the  battles  were  fought,  his  energy 
of  character,  his  readiness  to  work  with  and  for  his 
fellow  officers,  his  confidential  relations  with  Lincoln, 
Morgan  and  Arnold  would  have  made  him  a  more 
useful  man  than  Gates  at  the  head  of  the  northern 
army.  After  Burgoyne  had  been  defeated  by  Mor- 
gan and  Arnold  with  their  unorganized  but  hardy 
followers,  Gates  first  appeared  as  a  real  commander- 
in-chief  and  carried  out  very  well  the  part  of  a 
generous  and  magnanimous  victor. 

Schuyler,   in  his  retirement  at  Albany,  was  kept 
informed  of  the  course  of  events  at  Saratoga  by  his 

237 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

friends  in  the  army.  "I  am  chagrined  to  the  soul," 
wrote  Henry  Brockholst  Livingston,  in  September, 
"when  I  think  that  another  person  is  to  reap  the 
fruits  of  your  labors.  The  candid  and  impartial  will, 
however,  bestow  the  honor  where  it  is  due.  And 
although  the  ungrateful  and  envious  are  making  use 
of  every  art  to  ruin  you  in  the  esteem  of  your  country- 
men, I  flatter  myself  you  will  rise  superior  to  them  all 
and  receive  the  thanks  of  your  country  for  those  ser- 
vices of  which  it  is  at  present  unmindful."  During 
the  military  operations  the  British  burned  to  the 
ground  Schuyler's  fine  country  house,  with  its  barns, 
granaries  and  stables,  which  had  been  the  result  of 
many  years  of  economy  and  industry.  The  news  of 
this  personal  disaster  reached  him  at  Albany  at  the 
same  time  as  that  of  the  American  victory.  "The 
event  that  has  taken  place,"  he  wrote  to  Colonel 
Varick,  "makes  the  heavy  loss  I  have  sustained  sit 
quite  easy  on  me.  Britain  will  probably  see  how 
fruitless  her  attempts  to  enslave  us  will  be.  I  set  out 
today."  At  Saratoga  he  was  introduced  to  Burgoyne. 
The  latter  afterwards  described  the  meeting  in  a 
speech  before  the  House  of  Commons:  "I  expressed 
to  General  Schuyler  my  regret  at  the  event  which 
had  happened,  and  the  reasons  which  had  occasioned 
it.  He  desired  me  to  think  no  more  of  it,  saying  that 
the  occasion  justified  it,  according  to  the  rules  of  war. 
.  .  .  He  did  more:  he  sent  his  aide-de-camp 
to  conduct  me  to  Albany,  in  order,  as  he  expressed  it, 

238 


AFTER   THE    BATTLE 

to  procure  me  better  quarters  than  a  stranger  might 
be  able  to  find.  This  gentleman  conducted  me  to  a 
very  elegant  house,  and,  to  my  great  surprise,  pre- 
sented me  to  Mrs.  Schuyler  and  her  family;  and  in 
this  General's  house  I  remained  during  my  whole  stay 
at  Albany,  with  a  table  of  more  than  twenty  covers 
for  me  and  my  friends,  and  every  other  possible 
demonstration  of  hospitality." 

The  wife  of  the  German  General  Riedesel,  who 
with  two  children  had  accompanied  her  husband 
through  the  campaign,  left  an  interesting  account  of 
these  events.  "In  the  passage  through  the  American 
camp,"  she  said,  "I  observed,  with  great  satisfaction, 
that  no  one  cast  at  us  scornful  glances.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  all  greeted  me,  even  showing  compassion 
on  their  countenances  at  seeing  a  mother  with  her 
little  children  in  such  a  situation.  I  confess  that  I 
feared  to  come  into  the  enemy's  camp,  as  the  thing 
was  so  entirely  new  to  me.  When  I  approached  the 
tents,  a  noble  looking  man  came  toward  me,  took 
the  children  out  of  the  wagon,  embraced  and  kissed 
them,  and  then  with  tears  in  his  eyes  helped  me  also 
to  alight.  'You  tremble,'  said  he  to  me;  'fear  noth- 
ing.' 'No,'  replied  I,  'for  you  are  so  kind  and  have 
been  so  tender  toward  my  children,  that  it  has  in- 
spired me  with  courage.'  He  then  led  me  to  the 
tent  of  General  Gates,  with  whom  I  found  Generals 
Burgoyne  and  Phillips,  who  were  upon  an  extremely 
friendly  footing  with  him.  Burgoyne  said  to  me, 

239 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

'You  may  now  dismiss  all  your  apprehensions,  for 
your  sufferings  are  at  an  end.'  .  .  .  All  the  gen- 
erals remained  to  dine  with  General  Gates.  The  man 
who  had  received  me  so  kindly  came  up  and  said  to 
me,  'It  may  be  embarrassing  to  you  to  dine  with  all 
these  gentlemen;  come  now  with  your  children  into 
my  tent,  where  I  will  give  you,  it  is  true,  a  frugal 
meal,  but  one  that  will  be  accompanied  by  the  best 
of  wishes.'  'You  are  certainly,'  answered  I,  'a  hus- 
band and  a  father,  since  you  show  me  so  much  kind- 
ness.' I  then  learned  that  he  was  the  American 
General  Schuyler.  He  entertained  me  with  excellent 
smoked  tongue,  beef  steaks,  potatoes,  good  butter 
and  bread.  Never  have  I  eaten  a  better  meal.  I 
was  content.  ...  As  soon  as  we  had  finished 
dinner,  he  invited  me  to  take  up  my  residence  at  his 
house,  which  was  situated  in  Albany,  and  told  me 
that  General  Burgoyne  would  also  be  there.  . 
The  day  after  this  we  arrived  at  Albany,  where  we 
had  so  often  longed  to  be.  But  we  came  not,  as 
we  supposed  we  should,  as  victors !  We  were,  never- 
theless, received  in  the  most  friendly  manner  by  the 
good  General  Schuyler,  and  by  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ters, who  showed  us  the  most  marked  courtesy,  as 
also  General  Burgoyne,  although  he  had — without 
any  necessity,  it  was  said — caused  their  magnificently 
built  houses  to  be  burned.  But  they  treated  us  as 
people  who  knew  how  to  forget  their  own  losses  in 
the  misfortunes  of  others.  Even  General  Burgoyne 

240 


BURGOYNE   AT   ALBANY) 

was  deeply  moved  at  their  magnanimity,  and  said  to 
General  Schuyler,  'Is  it  to  me,  who  have  done  you 
so  much  injury,  that  you  show  so  much  kindness?' 
'That  is  the  fate  of  war,'  replied  the  brave  man;  'let 
us  say  no  more  about  it.' ' 

De  Chastellux  tells  the  following  anecdote  of  Bur- 
goyne's  visit  to  the  Schuylers:  "The  British  com- 
mander was  well  received  by  Mrs.  Schuyler,  and 
lodged  in  the  best  apartment  in  the  house.  An 
excellent  supper  was  served  him  in  the  evening,  the 
honors  of  which  were  done  with  so  much  grace  that 
he  was  affected  even  to  tears,  and  said  with  a  deep 
sigh,  'Indeed,  this  is  doing  too  much  for  a  man  who 
has  ravaged  their  lands  and  burned  their  dwellings.' 
The  next  morning  he  was  reminded  of  his  misfortunes 
by  an  incident  that  would  have  amused  anyone  else. 
His  bed  was  prepared  in  a  large  room;  but  as  he  had 
a  numerous  suite,  or  family,  several  mattresses  were 
spread  on  the  floor  for  some  officers  to  sleep  near  him. 
Schuyler' s  second  son,*  a  little  fellow  about  nine  years 
old,  very  arch  and  forward,  but  very  amiable,  was 
running  all  the  morning  about  the  house.  Opening 
the  door  of  the  saloon,  he  burst  out  a  laughing  on 
seeing  all  the  English  collected,  and  shut  it  after  him, 
exclaiming,  'You  are  all  my  prisoners!'  This  inno- 
cent cruelty  rendered  them  more  melancholy  than 
before." 

*Philip  J.  Schuyler,  father  of  George  L.  Schuyler. 

241 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

John  Trumbull,  in  his  painting  of  the  surrender  of 
Burgoyne  for  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  at  Washing- 
ton, represents  Schuyler  as  standing  in  citizen's  dress 
among  his  countrymen  in  continental  uniform.  To 
continue  his  military  services  and  finally  to  receive 
the  sword  of  the  enemy  were  privileges  which  un- 
fortunate circumstances  had  taken  from  him.  But 
Trumbull  portrayed  truly  the  judgment  of  his  time 
and  of  posterity  in  placing  Schuyler,  the  patriot,  in 
the  forefront  of  that  great  scene  which  his  faithful 
and  unselfish  labors  had  done  so  much  to  make  pos- 
sible. 

After  the  events  at  Saratoga,  Schuyler  applied  for 
a  court  martial  to  investigate  his  conduct  during  the 
war,  and  especially  his  relation  to  the  evacuation  of 
Ticonderoga,  of  which  his  enemies  had  been  able  to 
make  so  fatal  a  use.  In  December,  1777,  he  wrote 
to  Congress:  "When  a  man  of  sentiment  labouring 
under  odious  and  injurious  suspicions  has  in  prospect 
a  period  which  promises  to  afford  him  relief  and 
restore  quiet  to  his  mind,  it  is  natural  that  he  should 
anxiously  wish  for  its  arrival.  The  conviction  of  a 
good  and  a  clear  conscience  leaves  not  a  doubt  in  my 
mind  that  the  result  of  the  inquiry  into  my  conduct 
will  have  that  effect  and  restore  me  to  the  full  con- 
fidence of  such  of  my  honest  countrymen  as  have  been 
led  away  by  popular  clamor,  and  that  I  shall  stand 
confessed  the  sincere  and  affectionate  friend  of  my 
country.  Congress  will  therefore  pardon  me  if  I  am 

242 


RESIGNATION    FROM    THE   ARMY 

importunate  on  this  subject.  I  have  suffered  so  much 
in  public  life  that  it  cannot  create  surprise  if  I  anx- 
iously wish  to  retire  and  pay  that  attention  to  my 
private  affairs,  which  the  losses  I  have  sustained  by 
the  enemy  and  the  derangement  occasioned  by  devot- 
ing all  my  time  to  the  duties  of  my  offices  have 
occasioned,  and  yet  the  impropriety  of  resigning  them 
before  the  inquiry  has  taken  place  or  the  committee 
reported  my  innocence,  is  too  striking  to  need  dwell- 
ing on."  Congress  procrastinated,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  following  year  that  his  repeated  requests 
were  granted.  The  court  martial  acquitted  him  on 
every  count,  and  in  December,  1778,  Congress  ap- 
proved the  verdict  "with  the  highest  honor." 

Schuyler  then  sent  in  his  resignation  as  Major- 
General,  whereupon  Jay  wrote  him  in  March,  1779, 
from  Philadelphia:  "Congress  has  refused  to  accept 
your  resignation.  Twelve  States  were  represented. 
New  England  and  Pennsylvania  against  you.  The 
delegates  of  the  latter  are  new  men  and  not  free  from 
the  influence  of  the  former.  From  New  York  south 
you  have  fast  friends.  .  .  .  Were  I  in  your  sit- 
uation I  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  continue  in 
the  service.  I  have  the  best  authority  to  assure  you 
that  the  Commander-in-Chief  wishes  you  to  retain 
your  commission.  The  propriety  of  your  resignation 
is  now  out  of  the  question.  Those  laws  of  honor 
which  might  have  required  it  are  satisfied.  Are  you 
certain  they  do  not  demand  a  contrary  conduct  ?  You 

243 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

have  talents  to  render  you  conspicuous  in  the  field; 
and  address  to  conciliate  the  affections  of  those  who 
may  now  wish  you  ill.  Both  these  circumstances  are 
of  worth  to  your  family,  and,  independent  of  public 
considerations,  argue  forcibly  for  the  army.  Gather 
laurels  for  the  sake  of  your  country  and  your  children. 
You  can  leave  them  a  sufficient  share  of  property; 
leave  them  also  the  reputation  of  being  descended 
from  an  incontestably  great  man — a  man  who,  unin- 
fluenced by  the  ingratitude  of  his  country,  was  un- 
remitted  in  his  exertions  to  promote  her  happiness. 
You  have  hitherto  been  no  stranger  to  these  senti- 
ments, and  therefore  I  forbear  to  enlarge." 

But  Schuyler  felt  that  there  were  other  directions 
in  which  he  could  exert  a  useful  patriotism;  and  he 
pressed  his  resignation,  which  was  accepted  the  next 
April.  While  the  court  martial  was  still  in  session, 
he  had  been  elected  a  delegate  to  the  Continental 
Congress.  He  refused  to  take  his  seat  while  charges 
were  pending  against  him,  but  after  his  acquittal  he 
did  so  and  rendered  constant  service  at  Philadelphia. 
During  the  remainder  of  the  war  public  business 
made  continual  demands.  Washington  depended 
upon  him  for  finding  and  forwarding  provisions  for 
the  army,  an  occupation  to  which  he  devoted  a  great 
deal  of  time,  and  in  which  he  was  often  obliged  to 
pledge  his  private  credit.  Negotiations  with  the 
Indian  tribes  and  the  disordered  condition  of  the  New! 
York  frontier  required  his  frequent  presence  in  Al- 

244 


PROTECTION    OF   THE    FRONTIER 

bany.  In  May,  1780,  when  at  Washington's  camp 
at  Morristown,  he  was  recalled  by  the  following  letter 
from  Colonel  Morgan  Lewis:  "Sir  John  Johnson, 
we  are  credibly  informed,  is  in  force  at  Jesup's  Creek. 
An  universal  consternation  has  seized  the  frontier 
inhabitants,  and  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons,  heretofore  esteemed  good  Whigs,  imagining 
themselves  neglected,  and  fearing  the  resentment  of 
the  enemy,  have,  within  these  three  days,  gone  off 
and  joined  them.  All  Tryon  County  is  on  the  move 
to  Schenectady,  which,  in  a  few  days  more,  must  be 
our  western  frontier.  Threats  are  thrown  out  against 
Saratoga,  and  'tis  the  prevailing  opinion,  an  attempt 
will  be  made  to  destroy  it.  The  strength  of  the 
country  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  render  this  banditti 
truly  despicable  could  it  be  exerted.  The  spirit  of  the 
people  is  good,  but  we  are  destitute  of  the  means  of 
subsisting  them,  not  having  provision  for  even  our 
artificers  and  labourers.  Your  knowledge  of  the 
resources  of  the  country  and  influence  with  the  ruling 
powers  will  be  of  great  service  in  this  critical  juncture, 
and  I  confess  my  apprehensions  for  those  unfortunate 
people  who  lie  exposed  and  unprotected  are  greatly 
alleviated  in  the  reflection  that  nothing  in  your  power 
will  be  left  unessayed." 

Schuyler's  activity  against  the  Tories  and  their 
Indian  allies  who  worried  the  western  frontier  was 
of  such  effect  that  in  1781  they  made  a  determined 
effort  to  capture  him.  A  band  of  Tories,  Canadians 

245 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL7   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

and  Indians  surrounded  and  broke  into  the  house. 
The  railing  of  the  stairway  still  bears  the  mark  of  a 
tomahawk  thrown  by  a  savage  at  Miss  Margaret 
Schuyler  as  she  ran  through  the  hall  with  her  little 
sister  in  her  arms.  Schuyler  collected  his  family  in 
an  upper  room,  and  by  keeping  up  a  musketry  fire 
from  the  window,  and  by  calling  out  orders,  as  if  to 
a  rescuing  party,  he  succeeded  in  frightening  the  raid- 
ers, who  fled  with  the  family  silver.  Washington 
wrote  to  congratulate  him  on  his  escape,  which  "was 
attended  by  the  flattering  circumstance  of  being  ef- 
fected entirely  by  your  own  presence  of  mind." 

When,  in  May,  1781,  Robert  Morris  had  con- 
sented to  undertake  the  charge  of  the  continental 
finances,  he  applied  to  Schuyler  for  his  assistance. 
It  is  a  station,  wrote  Morris,  "that  makes  me  tremble 
when  I  think  of  it,  and  which  nothing  could  tempt 
me  to  accept  but  a  gleam  of  hope  that  my  exertions 
may  possibly  retrieve  this  poor  distressed  country 
from  the  ruin  with  which  it  is  now  threatened  merely 
for  want  of  system  and  economy  in  expending  and 
vigour  in  raising  the  public  monies.  Pressed  by  all 
my  friends,  acquaintances  and  fellow  citizens,  and 
still  more  pressed  by  the  necessity,  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  a  change  in  our  monied  systems  to  work  salva- 
tion, I  have  yielded  and  taken  a  load  on  my  shoulders 
which  it  is  not  possible  to  get  clear  of  without  the 
faithful  support  and  assistance  of  those  good  citizens, 
who  not  onb  wish  but  will  promote  the  service  of 

246 


OTHER    PUBLIC    SERVICES 

their  country.  In  this  light  I  now  make  application 
to  you,  sir,  whose  abilities  I  know  and  whose  zeal 
I  have  every  reason  to  believe."  To  this  appeal 
Schuyler  responded  with  his  usual  patriotic  energy, 
and  later  on  Morris  wrote  him:  "I  am  happy  to 
find  your  exertions  so  -cheerfully  and  usefully  ex- 
tended to  the  public  service." 


247 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Schuyler's   Political   Career   After   the   Revolution. 

His  Part  in  the  Development  of  New 

York  State. — His  Family  Life. 

WHILE  the  war  was  still  in  progress,  and 
while  he  was  absorbed  in  military  duties, 
Schuyler  was  called  upon  to  take  part  in 
the  political  affairs  of  his  native  State  which,  at  this 
formative  period,  demanded  the  best  efforts  of  in- 
telligent patriots.  The  struggle  for  independence 
necessarily  involved  the  building  up  of  a  new  political 
system.  The  old  Provincial  Assembly,  in  which 
Schuyler  and  Clinton  had  opposed  the  oppressive  acts 
of  the  British  ministry,  had  been  succeeded  in  the 
beginning  of  the  war  by  the  Provincial  Congress, 
which  assumed  the  government  of  the  revolted  colony. 
On  the  9th  of  July,  1776,  immediately  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  this  Congress  marked 
the  change  from  colony  into  independent  State  by 
resolving  itself  into  a  convention  of  representatives 
of  New  York.  The  first  business  of  the  convention 
was  to  appoint  a  committee  to  prepare  a  form  of  gov- 
ernment for  the  new  State,  and  of  this  committee 
John  Jay  was  made  chairman.  In  March,  1777,  Jay 

248 


POLITICS   IN    NEW   YORK 

presented  the  constitution,  which  he  had  drawn  up 
with  his  colleagues,  and  it  was  adopted  in  April.  It 
provided  for  a  government  by  the  people,  but  the 
aristocratic  ideas  still  prevalent  and  embodied  in 
Jay's  declaration  that  the  men  who  owned  the  country 
ought  to  govern  it,  appeared  in  a  property  qualifica- 
tion for  the  ballot  which  restricted  the  right  of  suf- 
frage. The  convention  appointed  John  Jay,  Chief 
Justice;  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Chancellor;  Robert 
Yates  and  John  Sloss  Hobart,  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  Egbert  Benson,  Attorney-General.  The 
Governorship,  however,  was  thrown  open  to  popular 
election. 

As  there  were  no  political  parties,  the  candidates 
were  suggested  only  by  their  own  prominence  before 
the  public.  Four  men  were  considered  chiefly  by  the 
electors:  John  Morin  Scott,  John  Jay,  Philip 
Schuyler  and  George  Clinton.  Scott,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Liberty  Boys  and  a  patriot  of  great 
usefulness  during  the  popular  resistance  to  the  acts 
of  the  British  ministry,  would  have  made  a  strong 
candidate;  but  the  county  of  New  York,  which  con- 
tained his  principal  constituency,  was  in  the  power  of 
the  British  army  and  no  election  was  held  there.  Jay, 
satisfied  with  the  office  of  Chief  Justice,  did  not  want 
the  governorship  and  supported  Schuyler.  The 
Council  of  Safety,  which  then  had  charge  of  ad- 
ministrative affairs,  also  favored  Schuyler.  The  elec- 
tion took  place  during  the  anxious  days  of  the  Bur- 

249 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

goyne  campaign.  Schuyler  was  absorbed  in  the  effort 
to  arrest  the  progress  of  the  British  army,  and  neither 
considered  himself  a  candidate  nor  encouraged  his 
friends  to  do  so.  Thus  the  office  of  Governor  fell  to 
Clinton.  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt  was  chosen  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor. 

George  Clinton,  destined  to  play  a  great  part  in 
the  public  affairs  of  his  native  State,  was  of  Scotch- 
Irish  extraction,  the  son  of  a  farmer  in  Ulster  County. 
In  almost  boyish  days  he  had  served  with  Schuyler  in 
the  French  and  Indian  War.  Later  he  studied  law 
in  New  York  in  the  office  of  William  Smith.  During 
the  political  struggle  in  the  Provincial  Assembly 
which  preceded  the  Revolution  he  and  Schuyler  had 
been  the  chief  supporters  of  the  patriot  cause  against 
the  ministerial  majority.  In  1775  they  were  elected 
together  as  delegates  to  the  second  Continental 
Congress.  Like  Schuyler,  Clinton  left  his  seat  in 
Congress  for  the  military  service,  and  at  the  time  of 
the  election  for  the  governorship  he  was  brigadier- 
general  in  command  of  the  militia  defending  the 
Hudson  River.  He  was  then  thirty-seven  years  of 
age,  of  a  burly  frame,  a  hearty  manner,  active,  vigor- 
ous, intelligent,  a  natural  leader,  and  uniting  more 
qualities  for  general  popularity  than  any  other  public 
man  in  the  State.  Neither  wealth  nor  family  connec- 
tions had  assisted  him.  His  native  talents  had  raised 
him  to  office  and  were  to  maintain  him  there  for 
eighteen  consecutive  years.  Before  him  no  man  of  a 

250 


CLINTON    AND    SCHUYLER 

similar  social  position  had  occupied  high  political 
office.  He  symbolized  in  his  career  the  new  democ- 
racy which  was  arising. 

Clinton  owed  his  election  to  his  popularity  among 
the  general  mass  of  voters,  rather  than  to  the  influence 
of  the  leading  men.  Schuyler  had  worked  with  him 
since  early  youth,  knew  and  liked  him.  For  Gov- 
ernor he  would  have  preferred  Jay,  but  he  looked 
with  satisfaction  upon  Clinton's  candidacy.  There 
were,  however,  a  number  of  influential  men  who  were 
not  well  pleased  with  the  result  of  the  election,  who 
would  have  wished  the  office  held  by  a  man  more  in 
line  with  the  conservative  traditions  of  the  State. 
They  seemed  to  feel  instinctively  that  Clinton,  al- 
though now  working  with  them,  might  in  the  future 
be  working  against  them.  There  was  a  feeling  of 
antagonism  none  the  less  real  that  it  was  vague  and 
as  yet  without  definite  cause. 

Among  the  accusations  made  against  Schuyler  by 
George  Bancroft  was  that  while  Washington  wrote 
of  Clinton's  election,  "His  character  will  make  him 
peculiarly  useful  at  the  head  of  your  State,"  Schuyler 
wrote,  "His  family  and  connections  do  not  entitle 
him  to  so  distinguished  a  predominence."  Bancroft 
inferentially  represented  Schuyler  as  having  no  stand- 
ard for  public  office  other  than  aristocratic  position. 
The  phrase  which  he  quoted,  isolated  from  its  context 
and  without  intimation  as  to  whom  or  under  what 
circumstances  it  was  written,  gave  a  totally  incorrect 

2511 


and  unfair  idea  of  Schuyler's  views.  Schuyler  knew 
of  the  opposition  to  Clinton  among  many  of  his 
friends ;  he  was  anxious  to  secure  harmonious  support 
for  the  new  government;  and  he  wrote  confidentially 
to  Jay:  "I  hope  General  Clinton's  having  the  chair 
of  government  will  not  cause  any  divisions  among 
the  friends  of  America,  although  his  family  and  con- 
nections do  not  entitle  him  to  so  distinguished  a  pre- 
dominence;  yet  he  is  virtuous  and  loves  his  country, 
has  abilities  and  is  brave,  and  I  hope  he  will  experi- 
ence from  every  patriot  what  I  am  resolved  he  shall 
from  me,  support,  countenance  and  comfort."  And 
to  Clinton  himself,  Schuyler  wrote  soon  after:  "I 
sincerely  congratuate  you  on  the  honour  your  country- 
men have  conferred  on  you,  and  assure  you  that  I 
shall  embrace  every  opportunity  to  make  you  sit  as 
easy  in  the  chair  of  government  as  the  times  will  ad- 
mit. Your  virtue,  the  love  of  my  country,  and  that 
friendship  which  I  have  always  and  with  great  truth 
professed,  are  all  so  many  inducements  to  it." 

While  Schuyler  was  visiting  Washington's  camp 
at  Morristown,  in  1779,  in  company  with  his  daugh- 
ter Elizabeth,  the  latter  became  engaged  to  Alexander 
Hamilton  and  they  were  married  the  following  year. 
Schuyler's  interes-t  in  political  affairs,  naturally  deep, 
was  intensified  by  his  intimacy  with  Hamilton.  The 
relationship  formed  the  beginning  of  a  friendship  of 
unusual  strength  on  both  sides,  in  which  personal 

252 


HAMILTON   AND    SCHUYLER 

affection  was  increased  by  entire  agreement  and  sym- 
pathy on  public  questions  of  absorbing  interest.  Dur- 
ing the  next  twenty  years  the  foundations  of  the 
nation  were  laid  and  its  future  determined.  Into  the 
burning  questions  then  arising  for  settlement  Schuyler 
entered  with  all  the  more  heartiness  that  his  son-in-law 
was  the  prime  mover  on  the  right  side.  It  was  a 
time  of  intense  political  feeling;  men  were  drawn 
closely  together  or  separated  widely,  according  to 
their  views  on  public  policy.  During  this  period, 
Schuyler  living  generally  in  Albany,  and  Hamilton 
in  New  York,  their  views  were  often  exchanged  by 
letter.  After  Schuyler's  death,  this  correspondence, 
with  other  interesting  political  papers,  was  found  in 
a  trunk  in  Albany.  Its  value  historically  was  great. 
It  could  have  thrown  light  on  the  early  history  of 
the  Federalist  party,  and  perhaps  would  have  cleared 
up  some  incidents  which  now  remain  obscure.  The 
intimate,  unguarded  views  of  Hamilton  were  there. 
But  the  son  of  one  of  Schuyler's  executors,  looking 
over  the  papers  and  finding  expressions  which  he  con- 
sidered too  personal,  took  upon  himself  the  responsi- 
bility of  burning  the  whole  ! 

From  1780  to  1790,  Schuyler  was  almost  continu- 
ously a  member  of  the  State  Senate  and  a  member 
of  the  Council  of  Appointment,  which  shared  the 
appointing  power  with  the  Governor.  He  was  also 
a  commissioner  on  the  Massachusetts  and  the  Penn- 
sylvania boundaries,  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Indian 

253 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

Commissioners  and  surveyor-general  of  the  State. 
One  of  the  most  important  measures  which  he  carried 
through  the  Legislature  was  the  repeal  of  the  re- 
strictive laws  against  the  loyalists,  which  he  had  al- 
ways opposed  as  cruel  and  impolitic. 

Through  those  disorderly  and  dangerous  years 
preceding  the  adoption  of  the  national  constitution, 
when  the  slight  bond  which  joined  the  States  was 
often  strained  to  near  the  breaking  point,  Schuyler 
was  constant  in  urging  a  closer  union  and  a  stronger 
central  government.  He  procured  the  passage 
through  the  New  York  Legislature  of  resolutions  to 
that  end  which  Hamilton  had  drawn  up,  and  he  kept 
the  subject  foremost  in  all  political  talk.  In  1787, 
when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  lately 
formulated  by  the  convention  at  Philadelphia,  was 
before  the  people  for  ratification,  the  two  great  par- 
ties, Federalist  and  Anti-Federalist,  began  to  take 
form.  On  the  one  side  were  the  advocates  of  a  strong 
centralized  government  which  could  make  an  Ameri- 
can nation;  on  the  other  those  who  preferred  a  loose 
confederation  of  independent  States.  It  was  the  vital 
question  in  our  history,  not  settled  finally  until  the 
Civil  War.  In  New  York,  party  feeling  ran  high. 
Hamilton,  Jay  and  Schuyler  were  foremost  in  work- 
ing for  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  Clinton 
and  his  friends  were  against  it  and  had  a  strong 
majority  with  them.  In  January,  1788,  when  the 
great  question  was  paramount  in  every  mind,  the 

254 


IN   THE   NEW   YORK   SENATE 

Governor  made  no  mention  of  it  in  his  message  to 
the  Legislature.  In  June  a  convention  to  consider 
ratification  met  at  Poughkeepsie,  Governor  Clinton 
presiding.  His  friends,  led  by  Robert  Yates,  John 
Lansing,  Jr.,  Samuel  Jones,  and  Melancthon  Smith 
largely  outnumbered  their  opponents.  But  the  Fed- 
eralists, led  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  John  Jay,  Rich- 
ard Morris,  John  Sloss  Hobart,  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston and  James  Duane,  had  not  only  on  their  side  the 
strength  of  great  and  enlightened  ideas,  but  also  the 
advantage  of  superior  abilities.  A  long  struggle  en- 
sued, in  which  the  brilliant  arguments  of  Hamilton 
disconcerted  the  opposing  majority.  But  it  was  not 
until  it  became  known  that  enough  States  had  ratified 
to  show  that  New  York  would  be  left  alone  in  her 
independence,  that  Clinton's  party  gave  up  the  fight, 
and  the  constitution  became  law  in  New  York.  As 
Schuyler  remarked,  "  Perseverance,  patience,  and 
abilities  prevailed  against  numbers  and  prejudice." 

In  the  Legislature  of  1788  Clinton's  party  had  a 
majority  in  the  Assembly,  but  Hamilton,  Schuyler, 
and  the  Federalists  controlled  the  senate.  The  Clin- 
tonians  claimed  that  the  choice  of  United  States  Sena- 
tors and  Presidential  electors  should  be  by  joint  ballot 
of  both  Houses;  the  Federalists  that  the  choice 
should  be  by  the  concurrent  vote  of  the  separate 
houses.  On  this  question  no  agreement  was  reached 
until  the  following  year,  so  that  New  York  had  no 
part  in  electing  Washington  for  his  first  term  nor  in 

255 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

confirming  his  early  appointments.  In  April,  1789, 
the  first  great  test  of  parties  in  New  York  occurred 
in  the  election  for  governor.  Clinton  was  a  candidate 
to  succeed  himself.  On  the  Federalist  side  Jay  de- 
clined to  run,  as  he  was  too  much  taken  up  with  na- 
tional affairs.  Schuyler  also  refused,  as  he  wished  to 
enter  the  United  States  Senate.  The  only  other  man 
who  seemed  to  have  any  chance  of  defeating  Clinton 
was  Judge  Yates.  He  had  been  an  anti-Federalist, 
but  in  a  speech  to  the  grand  jury  had  declared  that 
the  Constitution  having  been  ratified,  it  was  every 
man's  duty  to  support  it.  This  seemed  to  be  good 
enough  Federalism  for  the  emergency,  and  Yates  was 
nominated.  Clinton's  popularity,  however,  pre- 
vailed, and  he  was  again  elected  Governor,  although 
the  Legislature  became  Federalist  in  both  branches. 

Since  the  formation  of  the  national  Government 
Hamilton  had  been  rising  in  political  importance  un- 
til now  he  was  second  only  to  Washington.  As  the 
head  of  the  Treasury  Department  there  devolved 
upon  him  the  solution  of  the  most  vital  problems 
which  the  administration  had  to  solve.  His  activity 
in  all  political  affairs  was  untiring  and  his  influence 
paramount.  When  the  newly  elected  New  York 
Legislature  was  called  in  extra  session  for  the  election 
of  United  States  Senators,  Hamilton's  power  was  ex- 
erted in  a  direction  which  caused  much  jealousy.  One 
of  the  Senatorships  was  universally  conceded  to 
Schuyler.  But  there  were  several  pretenders  to  the 

256 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES   SENATE 

other,  whose  claims  on  account  of  previous  patriotic 
service  were  well  founded.  Among  these  was  Robert 
R.  Livingston.  He  and  Philip  Livingston  had  been 
candidates  for  Governor  at  the  first  election  in  1777; 
but  they  had  polled  a  very  small  vote.  Now  the 
Livingstons  and  their  friends  thought  that  the  Chan- 
cellor should  have  the  other  seat  in  the  United  States 
Senate.  Hamilton,  however,  had  fixed  upon  Rufus 
King,  a  man  of  the  highest  character  and  abilities, 
but  a  New  Englander  who  had  only  recently  estab- 
lished himself  in  New  York.  The  influence  of  Ham- 
ilton prevailed  and  King  was  elected.  But  the  Liv- 
ingstons felt  a  not  unnatural  resentment,  and  soon 
afterwards  went  over  to  the  anti-Federalists  or  Dem- 
ocratic party. 

Schuyler  and  King  had  to  draw  lots  to  determine 
which  should  have  the  short  term  of  two  years  or  the 
long  one  of  six  years.  Schuyler  drew  the  short  term. 
From  1790  to  1792  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  sup- 
porting in  the  United  States  Senate  Hamilton's  great 
financial  measures  which  so  immeasurably  increased 
the  stability  and  credit  of  the  Government.  In  1792 
he  was  again  a  candidate  for  Senator.  But  the  wily 
Aaron  Burr,  uniting  in  his  own  support  the  Clinton- 
ian  party  and  the  Livingstons,  anxious  to  strike  a 
blow  at  Hamilton,  secured  the  seat  for  himself. 
Schuyler  returned  to  the  State  Senate,  where  he  led 
the  defence  of  the  Jay  Treaty.  In  1797,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  Burr's  term,  he  had  his  revenge,  for  the 

257 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

New  York  Legislature  returned  him  to  the  United 
States  Senate  almost  unanimously.  His  health,  near- 
ly always  poor,  began  to  give  way  after  this  election, 
and  soon  after  taking  his  seat  he  retired  finally  from 
public  life. 

Schuyler  was  a  Federalist  from  the  first  moment 
that  circumstances  suggested  the  dominant  idea  of 
that  party.  During  the  "  critical  period  "  he  saw  in 
the  principle  of  Federalism  the  only  salvation  of  the 
jarring  and  disunited  States.  While  Clinton  and  his 
political  friends  refused  to  look  beyond  the  boundary 
of  New  York  with  anything  but  narrow  jealousy  and 
prejudice,  while  they  sent  two  obstructionists  to  tie 
Hamilton's  hands  in  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
Schuyler's  voice  was  always  heard  urging  national 
unity.  His  feelings  were  warmly  aroused,  and  his 
efforts  unremitting  to  procure  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution  in  his  own  hostile  State.  During  the 
fifteen  years  of  national  life  which  he  was  permitted 
to  see  he  was  never  without  thought  for  the  great 
cause:  the  welding  of  the  States  into  one  people  and 
one  nation,  respecting  itself  and  respected  by  others. 
The  noble  aim,  the  vision  of  future  greatness,  were 
to  be  achieved,  if  at  all,  by  the  Federalist  party.  And 
Schuyler  was  a  partisan.  His  political  associates  had 
his  time  and  his  means  always  at  command.  And  he 
can  be  forgiven  if  he  saw  in  the  enemies  of  his  party 
his  personal  enemies  and  the  enemies  of  his  country. 
The  reverence  which  he  felt  for  the  great  leader  of 

258 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   NEW   YORK 

the  revolution,  for  the  chief  of  the  Federalists,  for 
him  who  stood  "first,"  was  a  part  of  Schuyler's  life. 
That  base  libellers,  aided  and  abetted  by  leaders  of 
the  opposing  party,  should  cast  mud  at  him  and  seek 
to  degrade  in  the  public  eye  what  was  best  in  Ameri- 
can manhoo'd,  made  Schuyler's  blood  boil,  made  it 
easy  for  him  to  believe  any  evil  of  such  "miscreants," 
and  made  him  on  such  issues  a  very  warm  partisan. 

In  addition  to  his  political  interests  Schuyler  took 
an  active  part  in  the  development  of  his  native  State. 
From  his  youth  up  he  had  made  a  study  of  the  physi- 
cal geography  of  New  York.  None  was  a  better 
judge  of  the  quality  of  land;  none  more  surely  could 
foresee  its  value  by  observation  of  the  forest  growth 
and  the  water  courses.  His  own  purchases  were  for 
improvement,  seldom  for  speculation.  His  posses- 
sion of  land  meant  the  erection  of  saw-mills,  the  clear- 
ing of  the  forest,  and  the  beginning  of  cultivation. 
The  most  favorable  terms  were  offered  to  tenants. 
The  old  parchment  leases  mention  so  many  bushels  of 
grain,  so  many  fowls,  or  day's  labor  as  rent.  The  in- 
dividual payments  were  trifling,  but  in  the  aggregate 
they  brought  a  considerable  income  to  the  large  land- 
owner. After  the  Revolution,  with  the  changed  so- 
cial and  political  conditions,  Schuyler  foresaw  the  dif- 
ficulties in  the  path  of  a  great  landlord,  caused  by  the 
uncertainties  of  title  and  tenure.  He  made  definite 
arrangements  with  his  tenants  regarding  their  future 
purchase  of  their  holdings,  and  thus  spared  his  de- 

259 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

scendants  the  troubles  and  losses  of  the  "anti-rent" 
agitation.  His  judgment  regarding  land  was  sought 
by  intending  purchasers,  and  his  knowledge  was  put 
to  public  use  in  marking  the  boundaries  between 
Massachusetts  on  the  east  and  Pennsylvania  on  the 
south.  As  surveyor-general  he  had  more  or  less  to 
do  with  all  the  public  works  of  the  progressive  times 
that  followed  the  war;  the  dividing  up  of  Tryon 
County,  the  settlement  of  the  towns  of  Ontario,  Gen- 
essee,  and  Oneida,  the  construction  of  new  roads 
from  the  Mohawk  River  to  the  lakes,  and  from  Gen- 
essee  to  what  are  now  Buffalo  and  Lewiston.  With 
the  opening  of  the  interior  of  the  State  to  settlers  he 
saw  Albany  lose  its  old  frontier  position  as  headquar- 
ters of  the  fur  trade  to  assume  that  of  centre  of  a 
grain-producing  country.  He  saw  a  line  of  stages 
established  down  the  Hudson  River,  and  the  institu- 
tion of  a  regular  mail  carrier  every  two  weeks  be- 
tween Albany  and  the  Genessee  Valley. 

In  this  transformation  of  savage  hunting  grounds 
into  a  cultivated  country,  the  question  of  transporta- 
tion soon  became  of  great  importance.  The  old 
waterways  and  carrys  had  been  supplemented  by 
rough  roads  cut  through  the  forest  between  the  larger 
settlements.  But  a  better  means  of  transporting  emi- 
grants and  freight  became  imperatively  necessary. 
Schuyler  saw  in  canals  the  solution  of  this  problem. 
The  waterways  of  his  native  land  suggested  the  idea ; 
and  when  a  young  man  visiting  England  in  1761,  he 

260 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    CANAL   SYSTEM 

had  already  studied  the  subject.  In  1776,  when 
Charles  Carroll  and  Benjamin  Franklin  were  visiting 
the  northern  department,  Schuyler  showed  them  his 
plans  for  connecting  the  Hudson  River  and  Lake 
Champlain  by  a  canal,  thus  making  an  uninterrupted 
water  carriage  between  New  York  and  Quebec.  In 
1792,  with  Elkanah  Watson,  he  took  up  the  project 
of  a  canal  between  the  Hudson  River  and  Lake  On- 
tario by  way  of  the  Mohawk,  Oneida  Lake,  and  the 
Onondaga  River.  Watson  examined  this  route  in 
company  with  Jeremiah  Van  Rensselaer,  Philip  Van 
Cortlandt  and  Stephen  N.  Bayard.  Schuyler  was 
then  a  State  Senator,  and  he  procured  an  act  of  the 
Legislature  chartering  two  companies  to  carry  out 
this  design,  of  both  of  which  he  was  made  president. 
With  Goldsbrow  Banyer  and  Elkanah  Watson,  in 
the  summer  of  1792, he  made  a  thorough  examination 
of  the  route  from  Schenectady  to  Lakes  Seneca  and 
Ontario,  a  country  which  a  short  time  before  had 
been  in  exclusive  possession  of  the  Indians.  In  1793 
work  was  begun,  and  in  1796  boats  of  sixteen  tons 
burden  passed  from  Schenectady  to  Lake  Ontario. 
In  1794  Schuyler  was  interested  in  the  northern  or 
Champlain  Canal,  constructed  by  the  French  engi- 
neer, Brunei.  During  the  remainder  of  his  life  he 
continued  his  efforts  in  this  direction,  and  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1802,  when  sixty-nine  years  old,  he  examined 
personally  the  entire  western  canal  route,  devising 
improvements  for  locks  and  solving  the  engineering 

261 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

and  mathematical  problems  himself.  Such  work  was 
done  by  him  in  his  age  in  a  land  where  in  his  youth 
he  had  gone  by  an  Indian  trail  and  only  by  savage 
permission. 

With  the  Indians,  the  great  Iroquois  Confed- 
eracy, Schuyler  continued  the  close  relations  which 
had  been  hereditary  in  his  family.  In  his  youth  he 
had  often  travelled  the  western  trail  by  the  Long 
House;  he  had  fought  against  the  savages  and  with 
them  in  the  French  and  Indian  war.  He  had  known 
them  in  their  power,  hemming  in  the  whites,  keeping 
them  close  to  the  Hudson,  an  endless  menace  on  the 
west  in  conjunction  with  the  French  or  English  in 
Canada.  He  held  the  office  of  Indian  commissioner 
for  many  years,  attending  all  the  important  council 
fires,  and  was  regarded  by  the  savages  as  the  heredi- 
tary representative  of  the  whites.  The  chiefs  who 
came  to  Albany  always  appeared  at  the  Schuyler 
house,  where,  although  "troublesome  visitors,"  they 
were  hospitably  received.  During  the  Revolutionary 
War  Schuyler  was  the  principal  instrument  in  limiting 
their  hostility.  During  the  ravages  of  Sir  John  John- 
son, of  Brant,  and  the  Cornplanter  on  the  western 
frontier  he  was  the  chief  organizer  of  resistance. 
Whenever  business  arose  between  the  United  States 
and  the  Six  Nations,  Schuyler's  experience  was  used. 
General  Knox,  the  Secretary  of  War,  relied  upon  him. 
Governor  Clinton  wrote  him  in  1784:  "You  were  so 
obliging  as  to  promise  to  draft  a  letter  proper  to  be 

262 


RELATIONS   WITH   THE    INDIANS 

addressed  to  the  Indians  for  inviting  them  to  the  pro- 
posed treaty.  I  am  utterly  unacquainted  with  the 
etiquette  to  be  used  on  such  occasions;  may  I  there- 
fore venture  to  request  that  with  the  draft  of  the  let- 
ter you  will  please  to  inform  me  whether  it  will  be 
necessary  to  send  copies  to  the  different  tribes  and,  if 
so,  give  me  the  proper  addresses,  and  whatever  other 
information  you  may  conceive  necessary." 

And  Schuyler  lived  to  see  the  decline  of  the  Six  Na- 
tions as  a  power  to  be  dreaded.  The  treaty  at  Fort 
Stanwix  pushed  the  boundary  of  New  York  far  west- 
ward. The  canals,  which  opened  a  road  for  men  and 
goods  to  the  Great  Lakes,  meant  the  end  of  savage 
possession.  The  great  chiefs,  with  whom  Schuyler  had 
struggled  and  negotiated,  saw  the  inevitable  conclu- 
sion. The  Cornplanter,  who  had  ravaged  Wyo- 
ming and  Cherry  Valley  at  the  head  of  his  Senecas, 
paid  the  penalty  when  he  reluctantly  signed  away 
the  old  hunting  grounds  of  his  nation  at  Fort  Stan- 
wix; and  he  felt  the  full  force  of  the  irresistible 
change  when  he  received  a  tax  bill  from  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania.  Red  Jacket,  the  great  orator  of  the  Sen- 
ecas, shed  tears  when  he  found  his  hunting  expedi- 
tions interrupted  again  and  again  by  fences.  Brant, 
the  brother-in-law  of  Sir  William  Johnson,  whose 
long  and  bloody  career  had  made  his  name  a  terror 
along  the  border,  realized  the  ruin  of  his  race  when, 
on  his  death-bed,  he  charged  his  nephew :  "Have  pity 
on  the  poor  Indians;  if  you  can  get  any  influence 

263 


LIFE    OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

with  the  great,  endeavor  to  do  them  all  the  good  you 
can."  Such  was  the  end  of  the  dominating  confed- 
eracy, yielding  before  the  irresistible  advance  of  civ- 
ilization. Schuyler  had  always  a  feeling  of  sym- 
pathetic interest  in  the  Indians,  and  he  often  inter- 
vened to  protect  their  interests.  Among  the  mass  of 
addresses  and  petitions  regarding  them  which  remain 
among  his  papers  are  not  a  few  letters  thanking  him 
for  services  rendered  and  signed  by  the  mark  of  once 
well-known  chiefs. 

With  the  substitution  of  the  State  for  the  old  Prov- 
ince of  New  York,  with  the  succession  of  George 
Clinton  to  the  Crown  governorships  of  Sir  Henry 
Moore,  Lord  Dunmore  and  William  Tryon,  Schuy- 
ler saw  some  marked  social  changes.  The  manors  of 
the  Hudson  and  the  political  influence  of  prominent 
families  disappeared.  Landed  estates  were  divided 
up  among  many  heirs.  Ambitious  young  men  went 
to  the  cities  to  practice  law  or  to  engage  in  commerce, 
where  town  lots  soon  became  a  more  profitable  form 
of  investment  than  the  wild  lands  which  their  fathers 
had  sought  to  acquire.  Very  quickly  and  naturally 
the  English  idea  of  a  landed  aristocracy  was  forgot- 
ten; old  prejudices  fell  away;  and  among  all  ranks 
arose  the  free  and  eager  competition  for  wealth  and 
success  which  is  characteristic  of  our  time  and  coun- 
try. 

Schuyler's  domestic  life  was  happy,  and  the  family 
letters  which  have  been  preserved  display  strong  af- 

264 


FAMILY   LIFE 

fections.  He  lost  several  children  in  infancy,  but 
lived  to  see  eight  grow  to  manhood  and  womanhood 
and  become  well  established  in  life.*  The  estate  at 
Saratoga,  where  he  had  built  a  small  house  to  replace 
the  large  one  burned  by  the  soldiers  of  General  Bur- 
goyne,  was  given  by  him  to  his  son  John  Bradstreet 
on  his  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  the  patroon;  and 
on  the  occasion  of  this  gift,  in  1784,  he  wrote  to  his 
son: — 

"My  Dear  Child:  I  resign  to  your  care  and  to 
your  sole  emolument  a  place  on  which  I  have  for  a 
long  series  of  years  bestowed  much  care  and  atten- 
tion, and  I  confess  I  should  part  from  it  with  many 
a  severe  pang  did  I  not  resign  it  to  my  child.  I  feel 
none  now  because  of  that  paternal  consideration.  It 
is  natural,  however,  for  a  parent  to  be  solicitous  for 
the  weal  of  a  child  who  is  now  to  be  guided  by,  and 
in  a  great  measure  to  rely  on  his  own  judgment  and 
prudence.  Happiness  ought  to  be  the  end  and  aim 
of  the  exertions  of  every  rational  creature,  and  spir- 
itual happiness  should  take  the  lead,  in  fact  tem- 
poral happiness  without  the  former  does  not  really 
exist  except  in  name.  The  first  can  only  be  obtained 
by  an  improvement  of  those  faculties  of  the  mind 
which  the  beneficent  Author  of  Creation  has  made  all 


*John  Bradstreet  Schuyler,  Philip  J.  Schuyler,  Van  Rensselaer 
Schuyler,  Mrs.  John  B.  Church,  Mrs.  Alexander  Hamilton,  Mrs. 
Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Washington  Morton,  Mrs.  Mal- 
colm, afterwards  Mrs.  Cochran. 

265 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL  PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

men  susceptible  of,  by  a  conscious  discharge  of  those 
sacred  duties  enjoined  on  us  by  God,  or  those  whom 
he  has  authorized  to  promulgate  His  Holy  will.  Let 
the  rule  of  your  conduct  then  be  the  precept  con- 
tained in  Holy  Writ  (to  which  I  hope  and  entreat 
you  will  have  frequent  recourse).  If  you  do,  virtue, 
honor,  good  faith,  and  a  punctual  discharge  of  the 
social  duties  will  be  the  certain  result,  and  an  internal 
satisfaction  that  no  temporal  calamities  can  ever  de- 
prive you  of.  Be  indulgent,  my  child,  to  your  in- 
feriors, affable  and  courteous  to  your  equals,  respect- 
ful, not  cringing,  to  your  superiors,  whether  they  are 
so  by  superior  mental  abilities  or  those  necessary  dis- 
tinctions which  society  has  established.  With  regard 
to  your  temporal  concerns,  it  is  indispensably  neces- 
sary that  you  should  afford  them  a  close  and  continual 
attention.  That  you  should  not  commit  that  to 
others  which  you  can  execute  yourself.  That  you 
should  not  refer  the  necessary  business  of  the  hour  or 
the  day  to  the  next.  Delays  are  not  only  dangerous ; 
they  are  fatal.  Do  not  consider  anything  too  insig- 
nificant to  preserve;  if  you  do  so  the  habit  will  steal 
on  you  and  you  will  consider  many  things  of  little 
importance  and  the  account  will  close  against  you. 
Whereas  a  proper  economy  will  not  only  make  you 
easy,  but  enable  you  to  bestow  benefits  on  objects  who 
may  want  your  assistance,  and  of  them  you  will  find 
not  a  few.  Example  is  infinitely  more  lasting  than 
precept;  let,  therefore,  your  servants  never  discover  a 

266 


FAMILY   LIFE 

disposition  to  negligence  or  waste;  if  they  do  they 
will  surely  follow  you  in  it,  and  your  affairs  will  not 
slide,  but  gallop  into  Ruin.  ...  I  must  once 
more  recommend  to  you  as  a  matter  of  indispensable 
importance  to  love,  to  honor,  and  faithfully  and  with- 
out guile  to  serve  the  eternal,  incomprehensible  ben- 
eficent and  gracious  Being  by  whose  will  you  exist, 
and  so  insure  happiness,  in  this  life  and  in  that  to 
come.  And  now,  my  dear  child,  I  commit  you  and 
my  daughter  and  all  your  concerns  to  His  gracious 
and  good  guidance;  and  sincerely  entreat  Him  to 
enable  you  to  be  a  comfort  to  your  parents  and  a  pro- 
tector to  your  brothers  and  sisters,  an  honor  to  your 
family  and  a  good  citizen.  Accept  my  blessing,  and 
be  assured  that  I  am  your  affectionate  father." 

Schuyler's  wife,  the  "Sweet  Kitty  V.  R."  of  his 
youth,  was  spared  to  him  for  forty-eight  years.  She 
was  a  woman  of  strong  character  and  intelligence, 
able  and  glad  to  second  her  husband's  public  labors. 
When  Burgoyne's  army  was  advancing  southward, 
she  went  to  Saratoga  and  with  her  own  hands  applied 
the  torch  to  the  fields  of  growing  grain  in  order  that 
they  should  not  afford  sustenance  to  the  enemy.  She 
died  in  1803,  and  Schuyler  wrote  of  his  bereavement 
to  Hamilton :  "Every  letter  of  yours  affords  a  means 
of  consolation;  and  I  am  aware  that  nothing  tends  so 
much  to  the  alleviation  of  distress  as  the  personal 
intercourse  of  a  sincere  friend,  and  the  endearing  at- 
tentions of  children.  I  shall,  therefore,  delay  no 

267 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP    SCHUYLER 

longer  than  is  indispensably  necessary,  my  visit  to 
you.  My  trial  has  been  severe.  I  shall  attempt  to 
sustain  it  with  fortitude.  I  have,  I  hope,  succeeded 
in  a  degree,  but  after  giving  and  receiving,  for  nearly 
half  a  century,  a  series  of  mutual  evidences  of  an 
affection  and  of  a  friendship  which  increased  as  we 
advanced  in  life,  the  shock  was  great  and  sensibly  felt, 
to  be  thus  suddenly  deprived  of  a  beloved  wife,  the 
mother  of  my  children,  and  the  soothing  companion 
of  my  declining  days.  But  as  I  kiss  the  rod  with 
humility,  the  Being  that  inflicts  the  stroke  will  enable 
me  to  sustain  the  smart,  and  progressively  restore 
peace  to  a  wounded  heart;  and  will  make  you,  my 
Eliza  and  my  other  children,  the  instruments  of  con- 
solation." 

Schuyler's  affection  for  Hamilton  could  not  have 
been  greater  had  the  latter  been  his  own  son.  The 
news  of  the  fatal  result  of  the  duel  July  12,  1804, 
reached  him  in  Albany  when  he  himself  was  very  ill. 
In  this  calamity  he  wrote  to  his  daughter: 

"My  Dear,  Dearly  Beloved  and  Affectionate 
Child:  This  morning  Mr.  Church's  letter  has  an- 
nounced to  me  the  severe  affliction  which  it  has 
pleased  the  Supreme  Being  to  inflict  on  you,  on  me 
and  on  all  dear  to  us.  If  aught,  under  Heaven,  could 
aggravate  the  affliction  I  experience,  it  is  that,  inca- 
pable of  moving  or  being  moved,  I  can  not  fly  to  you 
to  pour  the  balm  of  comfort  into  your  afflicted  bosom, 
to  water  it  with  my  tears,  and  to  receive  yours  on 

268 


DEATH   OF   HAMILTON 

mine.  In  this  distressing  situation — under  the  pres- 
sure of  this  most  severe  calamity,  let  us  seek  consola- 
tion from  that  source  where  it  can  only  be  truly  found, 
in  humble  resignation  to  the  will  of  Heaven.  Oh, 
my  beloved  child,  let  us  unanimously  entreat  the 
Supreme  Being  to  give  you  fortitude  to  support  the 
affliction,  to  preserve  you  to  me,  to  your  dear  children 
and  relations.  Should  it  please  God  so  far  to  restore 
my  strength  as  to  enable  me  to  go  to  you,  I  shall 
embrace  the  first  moment  to  do  it;  but,  should  it  be 
otherwise,  I  entreat  you,  my  beloved  child,  to  come  to 
me  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can,  with  my  dear  grand- 
children. Your  sisters  will  accompany  you.  May 
Almighty  God  bless  and  protect  you,  and  pour  the 
balm  of  consolation  into  your  distressed  soul  is,  and 
will  always  be,  the  prayer  of  your  affectionate  and  dis- 
tressed parent." 

And  four  days  later  he  wrote  his  eldest  daughter, 
Mrs.  Church,  who  was  with  Mrs.  Hamilton:  "The 
dreadful  calamity,  my  dearly  beloved  child,  which  we 
have  all  sustained,  affected  me  so  deeply  as  to  threaten 
serious  results;  but  when  I  received  the  account  of  his 
Christian  resignation,  my  afflicted  soul  was  much  tran- 
quilized.  Oh,  may  Heaven  indulgently  extend  forti- 
tude to  my  afflicted,  my  distressed,  my  beloved  Eliza. 
I  trust  that  the  Supreme  Being  will  prolong  my  life, 
that  I  may  discharge  the  duties  of  a  father  to  my  dear 
child  and  her  dear  children.  My  wounds  bear  a 

269 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

favorable  aspect,  and  the  paroxysms  of  the  gout  have 
not  been  severe  for  the  last  two  days.  Yesterday  I 
was  able  to  sit  up  all  the  day.  God  grant  that  my 
recovery  may  be  accelerated  to  enable  me  to  go  to 
New  York  and  embrace  my  distressed  children. 
Should,  however,  my  restoration  be  retarded,  I  wish  to 
see  you  all  here.  The  change  of  scene,  may,  perhaps 
tend  to  soothe  my  beloved  Eliza  and  children.  She 
knows  how  tenderly  I  loved  my  dear  Hamilton ;  how 
tenderly  I  love  her  and  my  dear  children;  that  I  feel 
all  the  duties  that  are  devolved  on  me.  The  evening 
of  my  days  will  be  passed  in  the  pleasing  occupation 
of  administering  comfort  and  relief  to  a  child  and 
grandchildren  so  highly  entitled  to  my  best  exertions." 
The  strong  affections  which  appear  in  these  family 
letters  were  extended  by  Schuyler  to  his  friends.  His 
correspondence  with  Washington,  John  Jay,  James 
Duane,  William  Smith,  Jr.,  and  others  with  whom  he 
was  closely  associated  give  evidence  on  both  sides  of 
feelings  deeper  than  ordinary  friendship  and  regard. 
Dangers  and  difficulties  courageously  faced  bring  men 
close  together.  In  1784  Washington  wrote  him  from 
Mount  Vernon:  "In  recollecting  the  vicissitudes  of 
fortune  we  have  experienced  and  the  difficulties  we 
have  surmounted,  I  shall  always  call  to  mind  the  great 
assistance  I  have  frequently  received  from  you,  both* 
in  your  public  and  private  character.  May  the  bless- 
ings of  Peace  amply  reward  your  exertions.  May 
you  and  your  family  long  continue  to  enjoy  every 

270 


CAREER    AND    CHARACTER 

species  of  happiness  this  world  can  afford.  With 
sentiments  of  sincere  esteem,  attachment  and  affec- 
tion." 

Schuyler  survived  the  death  of  his  wife  and  of 
Hamilton  but  a  short  time.  He  died  on  the  i8th  of 
November,  1804,  in  his  seventy-first  year.  His  ca- 
reer, honorable  to  himself,  useful  to  the  community 
in  which  his  lot  was  cast,  and  to  the  nation  which  he 
helped  to  found,  owed  its  success  to  sterling  qualities 
of  head  and  heart.  Without  genius,  without  extraor- 
dinary talent  in  any  particular,  he  had  that  combina- 
tion of  ability  and  character  which  makes  a  trusted 
leader.  A  genuine  love  of  country  lay  at  the  base  of 
all  his  public  actions.  The  fair  land  which  his  ances- 
cestors  had  travelled  so  far  and  worked  so  hard  to 
possess,  he  rejoiced  in  possessing  and  in  improving. 
The  noble  river,  which  attracted  the  affection  of  his 
earliest  youth  and  was  nearly  concerned  in  all  the  in- 
terests of  his  later  life;  the  forests  and  lakes  and 
waterways  of  the  interior,  beautiful  to  him  as  they 
stood  in  their  wildness  and  inviting  to  a  development 
of  infinite  value;  his  neighbors  the  Indians  for  whom 
he  felt  an  hereditary  interest  and  responsibility — all 
these  were  real  and  deep  sources  of  attachment  to  the 
country  of  his  birth.  But  beyond  the  advantages  of 
beautiful  and  fertile  lands,  he  valued  the  higher  bless- 
ings of  an  enlightened  liberty,  of  political  rights,  of  a 
just  and  stable  government.  For  the  security  of  these 
blessings,  he  unhesitatingly  placed  his  life  and  prop- 

271 


LIFE   OF   GENERAL   PHILIP   SCHUYLER 

erty  in  jeopardy,  and  bore  with  magnanimity  a  cruel 
injustice.  He  labored  long  and  unselfishly  not  only 
to  preserve  them  from  foreign  attack,  but  to  establish 
them  on  the  enduring  foundation  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 


272 


INDEX 


Abercromble,  Gen.,  31,  62,  193. 

Ackland,  Maj.,  179. 

Adams,  John,  186. 

Adams,  Samuel,  187. 

Addison,  23,  41. 

Albany,  6. 

Alexander,  William,  38. 

Alsop,  John,  80,  84. 

Amherst,  Gen.,  31,  65. 

Andros,  Gov.,  17. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  115,  118,  120, 

131,  191,  202,  219. 
Auchmuty,  Dr.,  80. 

Baker,  Capt,  116. 
Balcarres,  Maj.,  179. 
Bancroft,  George,  200,  230,  251. 
Banyer,  Goldsborough,  261. 
Barclay,  Rev.  Henry,  37. 
Barre,  Col.,  120. 
Battery,  The,  3. 
Bayard  family,  17. 
Bayard,  Stephen  N.,  261. 
Bayard,  William,  76. 
Beauvais,  29. 
Beeckman  family,  17. 
Bennington,  battle  of,  74,  212, 

215- 

Benson,  Egbert,  98,  240. 
Bernier,   52,  54. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  146. 
Bowling  Green,  77. 
Bleecker,  36. 
Braddock,  Gen.,  44. 
Bradstreet,  Gen.  John,  55,  62,65. 
Brant,  46,  215. 
Brownson,  Mr.,  159. 
Burgoyne,  Gen.,   172,   175,   176, 

178,   182,   196,  209,  241. 
Burke,  Edmund,  80,  120,  180. 
Burke,  Mr.,  159,  167. 
Burr,  Aaron,  257. 


Caffieres,  lip, 

Callieres,  25. 

Canals,  261. 

Carleton,  Gen.,  118,  131,  169. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  176. 

Carroll,  Charles,  143. 

Chastellux,  Marquis  de,  68,  241. 

Chatham,  Lord,  120. 

Cheeseman,  Col.,  118. 

Church,  Mrs.,  269. 

Claverack,  13. 

Clinton,  George,  84,  90,  249,  250, 

255,  256. 

Clymer,  Mr.,  151,  159. 
Golden,  Gov.,  74,  83. 
Corlear,  II. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  38. 
Crown  Point,  45,  48,  147. 
Cruger,  John,  76,  80,  84. 
Cuyler,  36. 

Damas,  Comte  de,  68. 

Dayton,  Col.,  127. 

Deane,  Silas,  109. 

De  Laet,  Johanna,  21. 

De  Lancey  family,  17,  80. 

De  Lancey,  James,  44,  45,  So. 

De  Lancey,  John,  80. 

De  Peyster  family,  17. 

Derby,  Earl  of,  176. 

Dieskau,  Baron,  48,  49,  53,  54- 

Dinwiddie,  Gov.,  51- 

Douw,  V.  P.,  125. 

Duane,  James,  71,  84,  159,  166, 

224,  255. 

Duer,  William,  159,  165. 
Dyson,  Jerry,  166. 

Ellery,  Mr.,  159- 
Elmer,  Mr.,  159. 


273 


INDEX 


Fermoy,  Gen.  de,  173. 
Flatts,  The,  20,  30. 
Fort  Anne,  196,  206. 
Fort  Edward,  196,  206. 
Fort  George,  196,  206. 
Fort  Miller,  207. 
Fort  Saratoga,  207. 
Fort  Stillwater,  207. 
Fort  Stanwix,  219. 
Fox,  Charles  James,  71,  120. 
Francis,  Turbutt,  125. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  17,  82. 
Fraser,  Gen.,  179,  194,  195,  206. 
Frontenac,  19,  61. 

Gage,  Gen.,  59. 

Gansevoort,  Peter,  216,  218. 

Gates,  Gen.,  career  of,  137; 
intrigues  of,  137;  appointed 
to  command  of  army  in  Can- 
ada, 139;  conflict  of  author- 
ity, 140;  continues  intrigues, 
142;  leaves  Washington  in 
New  Jersey  to  seek  favor  of 
delegates  in  Congress,  152, 
153;  appointed  to  command, 
158;  defeat  of  his  party, 
160;  conduct  at  Albany,  161; 
correspondence  with  dele- 
gates, 161,  162;  defeat  of  his 
projects,  164;  his  conduct  at 
Albany,  164;  his  appeal  to 
Congress,  165 ;  his  neglect  of 
Ticonderoga,  171,  186,  190, 
193 ;  is  appointed  to  com- 
mand northern  department, 
223 ;  his  character,  232 ;  his 
military  operations,  237. 

George  III.,  176. 

Germaine,  Lord  George,  178. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  143. 

Glover,  Gen.,  205. 

Government  House,  3. 

Grant,  Mrs.,  of  Laggan,  28,  61. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  82,  252, 

253,  254,  255,  256. 
Hampden,  John,  38. 
Hampshire  Grants,  74. 
Harrison,  Col.,  167. 


Hawley,  Joseph,  125. 

Hay,  Col.,  184. 

Hayward,  Mr.,  159. 

Hazen,  Gen.,  139. 

Hendrick,  47. 

Herkimer,    Nicholas,    175,    183, 

216. 

Hinman,  Col.,  108. 
Hobart,  John  S.,  240,  255. 
Holland,  Lord,  71. 
Howe,   Gen.,  31,  59,   173,   177, 

182. 

Howe,  Lord,  59. 
Howe,  Richard,  59. 
Hunt,  L.  L.,  in. 

Jauncey,  James,  80. 

Jay,  John,   15,  34,  84,  98,   185, 

224,  243,  249,  255,  257. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  82. 
Johnson,  Guy,  98,  144. 
Johnson,    Sir    John,    98,    124, 

126,  127,  172,  175,  177,  215. 
Johnson,  Sir  William,  23,  35, 

45,  46,  48,  55,  124. 

ioncaire,  23. 
ones,  Dr.  John,  38. 
ones,  Samuel,  255. 

Kennedy,  Archibald,  77. 
King,  Rufus,  257. 
King's  Arms,  37. 
Kirkland,  Dr.,  58. 
Koorn,  Nicholas,  12. 

Lafayette,  Gen.,  17,  68. 
Lansing,  John,  Jr.,  36,  255. 
Lansing,  Philip,  44. 
La  Prairie,  25. 
Lauzun,  68. 

Lee,  Charles,  59,  93,  94. 
Lewis,  Francis,  84. 
Lewis,  Morgan,  245. 
Lincoln,  Gen.,  202,  213. 
Lispenard,  Leonard,  76. 
Livingston,  Edward,  18. 
Livingston,  Henry  B.,  238. 
Livingston,  Kitty,  41. 
Livingston  Manor,  18. 
Livingston,  Peter  R.,  80. 


274 


INDEX 


Livingston,  P.  V.  B.,  38. 
Livingston,   Philip,    18,  40,   76, 

159- 

Livingston,  Robert,  17,  81. 
Livingston,  Robert  R.,   18,  38, 

76,  240,  255. 

Livingston,  Walter,  104,  140. 
Livingston,  William,  18,  37,  38, 

76,  79- 

Lockwood,  James,  109. 
Long  House,  The,  35. 
Loockermans,  Govert,  12. 
Lovell,    James,    159,    161,    163, 

164. 

Low,  Isaac,  80,  84. 
Luzerne,  17.  . 
Lyman,  Gen.,  47,  51. 
Lynch,  Thomas,  119. 

Macdougall,  Alexander,  76. 
McCrea,  Jeanie,  210. 
McPherson,  Col.,  118. 
Manduit,  Chev.  de,  69. 
Manors,  Hudson  River,  9. 
Marin,  28. 
Middleton,  Mr.,  167. 
Militia,  The,  116,  117,  121,  194, 

200,  211,  225,  227,  228,  230. 
Mohawk  Chiefs,  23. 
Montcalm,  30,  35,  01. 
Montgomery,  Gen.,  81,  88,  95, 

no,  117,  118,  119,  121. 
Moore,  Gov.,  71. 
Morris,   Gouverneur,  201,  224, 

226. 

Morris,  Lewis,  84,  226. 
Morris,  Richard,  255. 
Morris,  Robert,  135,  246. 

Nassau  Hall,  95. 

New  York  City,  3,  5,  37,  38,  39- 

New  York,  province  of,  2. 

Nixon,  Gen.,  195. 

Noailles,  Vicomte  de,  68. 

North,  Lord,  120. 

Noyau,  62. 


Oriskany,  216. 
Oswego,  61. 


Paca,  William,  165,  166. 
Page,  Mr.,  159. 
Parkman,  Francis,  22. 
Parties  in  New  York,  82. 
Patroonships,  10,  14. 
Patterson,  Gen.,  173. 
Peters,  Hugh,  38. 
Philipse,  Eva,  15. 
Philipse,  Frederick,  15,  80. 
Philipse  Manor,  15. 
Philipsburg,  15. 
Phillips,  Gen.,  179,  188. 
Pitt,  William,  43. 
Poor,  Gen.,  173. 
Putnam,  Israel,  30,  44,  59,  135, 
184. 

Quider,  27. 

Rensselaerwyck,  10,  12,  13. 
Riedesel,  Gen.,  194,  195. 
Riedesel,  Mme.,  239,  240. 
Rochambeau,  17. 

Saratoga,   battle   of,   235,  237; 

Schuyler's  estate  at,  72,  265. 
Schuyler,  Alyda,  18. 
Schuyler,  Arent,  29. 
Schuyler,  Aunt,  31. 
Schuyler,  Brandt,  21,  30. 
Schuyler  cemetery,  31. 
Schuyler,  Elizabeth,  252. 
Schuyler  family,  20  et  seq. 
Schuyler,  Gertruyd,  15. 
Schuyler,  George  L.,"24i. 
Schuyler,  Johannes,  28. 
Schuyler,  Johannes,  Jr.,  32. 
Schuyler,  John  Bradstreet,  165. 
Schuyler,  Margaret,  246. 
Schuyler,  Peter,  22,  24,  45. 
Schuyler,  Col.  Peter,  29,  30. 
Schuyler,    Philip    Pieterse,    20, 

21. 

Schuyler,  Philip,  28,  29. 
Schuyler,  Philip,  Jr.,  241. 
Schuyler,   Mrs.    Philip,  42,   53, 

54,  267- 

Schuyler,  General  Philip,  birth, 
32 ;  youth,  33 ;  education,  33 ; 
mathematical  taste,  33;  early 


275 


INDEX 


Schuyler,  General  Philip — Con- 
tinued. 

life  at  Albany,  35 ;  visit  to 
New  York,  40 ;  comes  of  age, 
42;  in  the  French  and  Indian 
war,  52,  53,  56,  59,  63;  kind- 
ness to  French  prisoners,  54, 
58;  marries,  53;  accompanies 
General  Bradstreet,  62;  visit 
to  England,  65 ;  House  at 
Albany,  67,  68;  business  en- 
terprise, 70;  his  property,  70, 
72;  knowledge  of  Indians, 
71 ;  and  the  Hampshire 
Grants,  75 ;  member  of  pro- 
vincial assembly,  76,  80,  83; 
member  of  Continental  Con- 
gress, 84;  views  on  the  revo- 
lution, 85 ;  appointed  major- 
general,  91;  in  command  cf 
northern  department,  97;  ex- 
pedition to  Canada,  102,  103, 
106;  illness,  113;  wishes  tore- 
sign,  123;  appointed  Indian 
commissioner,  125 ;  moves 
against  Tories  and  Johnsons, 
126 ;  efforts  to  relieve  army  in 
Canada,  129;  attacks  upon  his 
character,  132;  New  England 
hostility  to,  135,  136;  conflict 
with  Gates,  142;  goes  to 
Crown  Point  with  Gates,  144 ; 
removes  troops  to  Ticonde- 
roga,  147;  criticism  of  this 
action,  148;  Congress  refuses 
to  accept  his  resignation,  149; 
ill-treatment  by  Congress, 
150;  intrigues  of  Gates 
against  him,  153 ;  his  letter  to 
Congress  which  gave  offence, 
!S5>  *56;  action  of  Congress 
on  the  letter,  156,  158,  160; 
goes  to  Philadelphia,  158; 
vindication  in  Congress,  160; 
returns  to  Albany  and  pre- 
pares for  invasion  from  Can- 
ada, 169,  171 ;  at  Ticonderoga, 
173 ;  protects  the  western 
frontier,  175;  hears  of  Bur- 
goyne's  invasion,  181 ;  evacu- 


Schuyler,  General  Philip — Con- 
tinued. 

ation  of  Ticonderoga,  184; 
establishes  headquarters  at 
Fort  Edward,  184,  195 ;  meas- 
ures for  defence,  196,  198, 
203 ;  relieves  Fort  Stanwix, 
219;  his  military  position  in 
contrast  to  Burgoyne's,  220, 
222 ;  is  superseded  by  Gates, 
223 ;  cause  of  this  action  by 
Congress,  223,  224;  his  con- 
duct at  this  juncture,  233, 
234;  meeting  with  Burgoyne, 
238;  hospitality  to  Burgoyne 
and  to  Mme.  Riedesel,  239; 
applies  for  court  martial, 
242 ;  is  acquitted,  243 ;  resigns 
from  army,  243 ;  other  public 
services  in  revolution,  244, 
246;  attempt  to  capture  him, 
246;  in  New  York  political 
life,  249,  253 ;  supports  United 
States  Constitution,  254;  in 
United  States  Senate,  257; 
part  in  development  of  New 
York,  259;  in  canal  system, 
261 ;  relations  with  Indians, 
263 ;  domestic  life,  264 ;  death, 
271. 

Schuyler  house  at  Albany,  67. 

Scott,  Gen.,  150. 

Scott,  John  Morin,  38,  77,  78, 
249. 

Seven  Years'  War,  42. 

Shelburne,  Lord,  178. 

Sherman,  Roger,  82,   165,  166, 
167. 

Six  Nations,  the,  19. 

Smith,  Cotton  Mather,  72,  108. 

Smith,  Melancthon,  255. 

Smith,  William,  Jr.,  37,  38,  71, 

159- 

Smith,  Wm.  Peartree,  38. 
Stamp  Act,  77. 
Stark,  Gen.,  44,  59,  139,  213. 
Steele,  Richard,  23,  41. 
Stevens,  Gen.,  190. 
Stockton,  Mr.,  151. 
Stouppe,  Rev.  Mr.,  33. 


INDEX 


Stringer,  Dr.,  154. 

Strong,  Zebediah,  104. 

St.   Clair,   Gen.,    158,   172,    184, 

185,  187,  192,  194- 
St.  Leger,  Col.,  215,  216,  219. 
St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany,  61. 
St.  Pierre,  51. 
Stuyvesant,  P.,  12. 
Sullivan,    Gen.,    131,    138,    139, 

H5- 
Sykes,  Mr.,  159. 

Ten  Broeck,  Abram,  36,  40,  80. 

Ten  Eyck,  36. 

Theatre  in  New  York,  40. 

Thornton,  Mr.,  159. 

Ticonderoga,  173,  174;  evacuat- 
ed, 183  ;  taken,  188,  190. 

Trumbull,  John,  144,  155,  156. 
189,  242. 

Trumbull,  Jonathan,  Jr.,  135. 

Trumbull,  Joseph,  143,  154,  155, 
156. 

Tryon,  Gov.,  71,  83. 

Valrenne,  25. 

Van  Brugh,  36. 

Van  Corlear,  Arent,  n. 

Van  Cortlandt,  Cornelia,  17,  21. 

Van  Cortlandt  family,  15,  16. 

Van  Cortlandt,  Jacobus,  15. 

Van  Cortlandt  Manor,  16. 

Van  Cortlandt,  Oloff  Stevense, 

14. 
Van  Cortlandt,   Pierre,   17,  80, 

184,  250. 
Van  Cortlandt,  Stephanus,  15, 

16,  21. 
Van  Home,  David,  38. 


Van  Rensselaer  family,  9,  n, 

13- 

Van  Rensselaer,  Hendrick,  13. 
Van   Rensselaer,  Jeremias,   12, 

13- 

Van  Rensselaer,  John,  71. 
Van  Rensselaer,  Kiliaen,  n,  13. 
Van  Rensselaer,  Nicholas,  18. 
Van  Schaack,  Henry,  44. 
Van  Schlechtenhorst,  12,  20. 
Villiers,  Coulon  de,  56. 
Varick,  Col.,  159. 
Vaudreuil,  56,  62. 

Walton,  Jacob,  80. 
Warner,  Gen.,  207. 
Warren,  Sir  Peter,  41,  45. 
Washington,    George,    42,    93, 

173,  182,  185,   199,  202,  205, 

207,  227,  270. 
Waterbury,  David,  100. 
Watson,  Elkanah,  261, 
Watts,  Jack,  41. 
Watts,  Miss,  45. 
Wayne,  Col.,  191. 
Wentworth,  Gov.,  74. 
Westminster  Abbey,  61. 
Whig  Club,  37. 
Whiten" eld,  George,  17. 
Wilkinson,  Col.,  164. 
Williams,  Ephraim,  47,  50. 
Williams,  W.,  156. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  28. 
Wolcott,  Oliver,  125,  159. 
Wolfe,  Gen.,  43,  63. 
Wooster,  Gen.,  100,  130,  131. 
Wynkoop,  Capt.,  41. 

Yates,  Robert,  240,  255,  256. 
York,  Duke  of,  17. 


277 


THE   CAREER   OF 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

The  important  share  of  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton in  the  founding  and  early  conduct  of 
the  Evening  Post  is  described  elsewhere  in 
this  issue,  in  the  sketch  of  the  history  of 
the  paper.  He  was  born  in  the  island  of 
Nevis,  British  West  Indies,  on  January  11, 
1757.  While  there  has  been  a  curious  un- 
certainty regarding  his  parentage,  it  is  gen- 
erally accepted  that  he  was  the  son  of 
James  Hamilton,  a  Scotch  merchant  in 
Nevis,  and  his  wife,  a  Frenchwoman.  His 
father  becoming  bankrupt,  the  son  was 
cared  for  in  boyhood  by  his  mother's  rela- 
tives, and,  though  showing  great  aptitude 
for  books  and  study,  took  a  place  in  the 
counting  house  of  a  rich  merchant  in  St. 
Croix  when  only  twelve  years  old.  Here 
he  evinced  remarkable  precocity  in  busi- 
ness, being  left  in  charge  of  all  affairs  when 
his  employer  was  absent,  and  wrote  clever- 
ly for  the  local  press.  His  talents  at- 
tracted so  much  attention  that  funds  were 
provided  for  the  lad  by  his  employer  and 
other  friends,  and  he  was  sent  to  the  Amer- 
ican colonies  to  complete  his  education. 

Arriving  in  Boston,  Mass.,  in  October, 
1772,  he  came  to  this  city,  and  then  went 
to  a  school  at  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.  In 
1774  he  entered  King's  College,  now  Colum- 
bia University,  where  he  was  in  the  first 
rank  of  all  his  classes.  The  troubles  be- 
tween the  colonies  and  the  English  Gov- 
ernment quickly  brought  him  to  the  front 
as  a  public  speaker  in  favor  of  the  for- 
mer's cause,  and  he  published  two  pamph- 
lets on  the  same  side,  which  caused  him 
to  be  recognizer"  as  a  leader  in  the  con- 
troversy. As  captain  of  a  New  York  com- 
pany of  artillery,  he  entered  the  patriot 
army  in  March,  1776,  serving  with  much 
credit  in  various  battles,  and  a  year  later 
was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  and  aide- 
de-camp  on  the  staff  of  Washington.  He 
gained  the  special  favor  and  confidence  of 
his  chief,  who  employed  him  as  his  sec- 
retary.   


While  discharging  a  mission  for  Wash- 
ington he  met  at  Albany  a  daughter  of 
Gen.  Philip  Schuyler,  whom  he  married 
in  1780.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he  studied 
law,  and  then  was  elected  from  New  5fork 
to  the  Continental  Congress,  where  he  was 
chairman  of  important  committees.  In  1783 
he  began  the  practice  of  law  in  this  city, 
and  soon  attained  the  highest  rank  in  his 
profession.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention held  in  Philadelphia,  in  1787,  to 
form  a  Federal  Constitution,  and  presented 
his  views  in  an  address  which  Gouverneur 
Morris  declared  to  be  "the  most  able  and 
eloquent  he  had  ever  heard."  Though  many 
of  his  opinions  did  not  prevail,  Hamilton 
signed  the  Constitution  adopted,  and  wrote 
more  than  fifty  of  the  remarkable  series 
of  essays  included  in  The  Federalist, 
urging  the  ratification  of  that  instrument. 
He  also  exerted  great  influence  in  carry- 
ing the  New  York  ratifying  convention  in 
its  favor. 

As  secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  Wash- 
ington's Administration,  Hamilton,  in  the 
words  of  Webster,  "smote  the  rock  of  the 
national  resources,  and  abundant  streams 
of  revenue  gushed  forth.  He  touched  the 
dead  corpse  of  public  credit,  and  it 
sprang  upon  its  feet."  There  is  not  space 
to  speak  of  his  other  important  work  in  ' 
the  Cabinet,  from  which  he  resigned  in  1795, 
to  resume  his  law  practice  in  this  city. 
The  circumstances  of  his  unfortunate  duel 
with  Aaron  Burr,  which  caused  his  death  in 
this  city,  on  July  12,  1804,  are  too  well 
known  to  recount.  Most  profound  sorrow 
was  occasioned  by  the  result,  and  his  fun- 
eral was  marked  by  all  the  military  and 
civic  honors  it  was  possible  to  bestow. 
On  the  day  of  the  funeral  the  office  of  the 
Evening  Post  was  closed. 


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WESTCHESTER     CO..N.Y. 


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IRVINGTO  N     P.  O. 
WESTCHESTER     C  O.,  N  .  Y. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000903350    7 


CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
University  of  California,  San  Diego 

DATE  DUE 


MSLMJffi 


C139 


UCSD  Libr. 


